After Struggling Through Plato and Aristotle, Students Usually Find These

Essay

After struggling through Plato and Aristotle, students usually find these thinkers quite accessible-and attractive. I have sometimes taken advantage of this by staging a debate among those favoring one or another view of the good life. Students are allowed to choose whether to defend a Platonist, an Aristotelian, an Epicurean, a Stoic, or a Skeptical approach to the issue. Then these five groups meet independently for twenty minutes or so, planning their defense-and also criticisms of rival views. The rest of the class period is spent in discussion. It can be very lively.