ABSTRACT
This chapter reclaims from the eclipsed origins a few distinctly Socratic insights that are not concerned with anything as problematic as a theory of human nature, and to review their import for educational attitudes and practices. It shows that attitudes and practices proceeding from an original Socratic inspiration anticipate some of the more incisive insights of twentieth-century practical philosophy. The chapter shows that such reclaimed insights, when considered afresh with some recent philosophical insights, are singularly promising and defensible in their engagement of the emergent identities of learners in the educational settings of contemporary pluralist societies. Modernist conceptions of identity had an educational purpose that was equally long term and steadfast, though in this case the inspiring ideal was that of promoting to full maturity the power of critical reason.
