Abstract

This paper examines the degree to which the relevance of an education in the Humanities hinges on our finding the value of what we do in the classroom. Specifically, we need to reflect on what occurs in the classroom when we attempt to engage students in philosophy. What are we saying to them? Can they even hear us? What do they do with what we give them? These questions go to the heart of what an education in philosophy entails: are we learning historic arguments, sound methods, or life skills? Each of the three authors will call upon Hellenistic texts to frame separate responses to the ways in which philosophers could be thinking about these questions—questions about these possibly changing times (complacency and cynicism) and the perceived crisis in the Humanities.