“The more I learn, the more I learn how little I know.” Socrates
If Socrates Was A Life Long Learner In A Digital Age
The intellectual roots of the critical thinking needed to be a successful lifelong learner can be traced back 2,500 years ago to the quotes, the teachings and the vision of Socrates of ancient Greece. When Socrates said the “unexamined life is not worth living”, he was creating what has come to be famously known as the Socratic principle of questioning (National Council for Excellence in Critical Thinking, 2019). Socratic questioning is a mode of questioning that deeply examines the strength of a definition, justification or logic of a claim, theory, line of reasoning or stance. Lifelong learners seek to examine the claims and theories within their disciplines’ body of knowledge before accepting them as worthy of belief.
Whilst a Harvard University Extension School and an Arizona State University Osher Lifelong Learning Institute lifelong eLearner and eProfessor, I embody the Socratic principle of the unexamined life is not worth living, because I realize that a multitude of unexamined lives can add up to an unjust and an extremely dangerous world. This type of critical thinking, dialogical instruction, and advancement of knowledge is integral to all levels of education. Socrates determined that while learning new information, we are challenging our current understanding. He discovered that by applying this method of probing questioning to theories of people in power, they could not rationally justify their claim to knowledge just because they held positions of authority. By questioning and examining life, Socrates established that persons could hold high position yet still be deeply confused, have self-contradictory beliefs and inadequate evidence to their rhetoric (National Council for Excellence in Critical Thinking, 2019). I view this philosophy as the beginning of empirical research.
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STANFORD: SCIENCE OF LEARNING
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