24 Workshop on Republic I for High School Students

by Louie Kulber

Foreword 

The purpose of this final project is to emphasize a facet of French radical Republican Education, creating a progressive education inspired by the Enlightenment that leans deeply into what the French call “culture générale.” Namely, in French high schools or Lycées, students are required to take classes known as the tronc commun, which are core subject classes like History, Geography, French literature, philosophy etc… Unlike in the U.S., France has a national curriculum which all students must follow. There are few key moments in which you can personalize your course load: 7th grade (5^ème) when you choose the foreign language you will learn and when you choose to take latin and/or ancient Greek as an elective, and 11th grade (1^ère) when you choose to specialize in either the Sciences, Literature and Philosophy, or Economics and Social Sciences.

I have always thought that this education was inspired by radical Republican leaders seeking to forge a country that would free itself of the shackles of absolute Monarchy towards enlightenment and reason. Indeed, like the liberal arts, its goals are to give an individual the opportunity to make themselves into good citoyens, citizens. To be frank, I think the word citizen does not do justice to its French counterpart. The idea of being a citizen gifted with reason or citoyen doué de raison as opposed to a passive subject of a monarch was one of the many advents of the French Revolution. During la Terreur, a period of many beheadings championed by Robespierre (who ended up under the Guillotine himself), people were actually obligated to call each other citoyen.

Returning to French education, the French love their classics. I think this is reflected in the fact that mostly all French teachers know Latin (and depending if they specialized in modern letters or classical letters, they might also know ancient Greek). Starting to study dead languages like Latin or ancient Greek in 7th grade allows for a special connection and bond that students can build on. Truly by getting grammar out of the way in middle school (collège), students once they start Lycée can jump right into ancient texts and engage with authors like Plato and Seneca in a very personal way which is very much so diluted when read in translation. By putting some work into translating, it makes it all the more rewarding to reap the benefits of the passage’s content. In writing this workshop for 11th and 12th grade students whose shoes I was in just a few years ago, I wanted to take this a step further and make this implicit connection between ancient and contemporary explicit–to inspire them to look beyond just what is being said, but how the content is valuable for contemporary life.

I remember in 11th grade when we were reading the Theaetetus (Théétète in French) in which Socrates’ role in the dialogues is compared to the art of midwifery. A passage that struck me was that he said that he would make people give birth to knowledge (“faire accoucher du savoir”). Whenever I’d be talking to my classmates or to my teacher, Mme. Clément, giving birth to knowledge became synonymous with learning. While it seemed insignificant at the time, we had in fact incorporated Platonic philosophy into our everyday occupation as students. Further, in 12th grade when we read Seneca’s De Providentia II, the wealth and richness of stoic philosophy was undeniably attractive to someone who was receiving a wave of college rejections. It felt as though I had someone with me (Seneca) going through the rejections with me. In both cases, my classmates and I were having a personal conversation with these ancient authors who despite writing their texts in very different contexts and for very different reasons, were very relevant to our own personal experiences.

The greatest asset I came out of high school with was this joy for engaging with the authors, for maintaining this personal relationship best achievable by reading the works in their original tongue, and, perhaps most importantly of all, for being able to pick and choose what I like and pushing aside what I don’t. Undeniably, there are many, many problematic themes and dialogues from the Classical world, but being able to filter through them and still enjoy the passages that don’t fall into the problematic realm has been an invaluable asset.

Writing the Workshop

The theme or content of the workshop is Republic I. From the onset, I knew that I wanted to incorporate as much Greek as the one hour I was given would allow for, diving the workshop into two parts: I) ancient Greek translation and learning about the Republic; II) reflecting on that to which they were exposed. As I said, a big part of the personal connection is working for the content by translating which is in itself an accomplishment, but it further makes the content seem like a reward. Ancient Greek is a very hard language and Plato is far from an easy sample of ancient Greek literature. Of note, it will be important to congratulate them on their work because it will be super impressive and they deserve that closure. A problem did come up though: I wasn’t sure what grade of students would be participating (still, 9th and 10th graders might be joining) so I didn’t want to give long, overly challenging passages which would easily take over an hour to translate. Instead, I wanted short sentences or even phrases that would summarize the key parts of Republic I. I settled on what I believe best summarized Republic I (which I’ve been getting very familiar with having translated it in its entirety): the definitions of Cephalus, Polemarchus, and Thrasymachus. Again, to maximize the sense of personal engagement with Plato, I wanted entire passages or sentences rather than edited, incomplete ones in which I would perhaps interfere with the experience. Unfortunately, the Greek in Cephalus’ definition and Polemarchus’ was a touch challenging grammatically-speaking, so as to not just give them a translation or let them flounder in the Greek (which would also take a lot of time), I did what Mme. Clément often did for us: a mot-à-mot translation which literally means word by word. By doing this, they first read the Greek then the French in little sections, getting an appreciation for both the Greek and its meaning.

I still wanted them to translate Greek to get that very satisfying sense of accomplishment so I was able to find easier short sentences which summarize Polemarchus’ definition and one for Thrasymachus. There are some grammar points which are a little difficult, like a passive aorist followed by the irregular present participle of ειμι as well as other perhaps unknown vocabulary words, so I provided a short vocabulary and grammar list next to each sentence to which they can easily refer. To be sure that they wouldn’t get stuck on words, I have provided them with two resources that I used a lot when translating: Perseus and a Greek to English and French dictionary/lexicon. Since most of them will have not been exposed to Perseus, I provided them which a short how-to section on the second page of the workshop. I will also be going through the breakout rooms going through the Greek with students if they need help so that they eventually get to the content.

Finally, I felt like it would be a pity to give them a Socratic dialogue without giving them at least one Socratic bit of philosophy (which is harder to find in Republic I as opposed to the rest of the Republic, but that’s Plato speaking anyways). I decided on adding to the reflection section my favorite passage of the Republic,when Socrates concludes that in no way is it just to do harm. Luckily, it’s a short sentence which isn’t particularly challenging. I think that both the definitions and this Socratic residue does an excellent job at both summarizing the views brought up in Republic I and giving them food for thought for the reflection section.

In considering the breakout room groups, I’m hoping to have a student from each class in groups of about three to four such that the older students can help the younger students.

When the students are brought back into the breakout room, after discussing their conclusion, it will be important to acknowledge their impressive work in both their Greek translations and thoughts. They have entered into dialogue with Plato and that is something that must be celebrated! By encouraging them in this way, they will hopefully be encouraged to continue this sort of experiment (which Mme. Clément also encourages in her own way).

Final Notes

I hope that this workshop will inspire students to enter into dialogue with ancient authors and by entering into dialogue, begin to live a more examined life as Socrates says in the Apology. I decided to end the workshop with the “unexamined life is not worth living” quote to hopefully answer the question that is undoubtedly brewing in their brains: “what is the point of doing this?”

DISCLAIMER: it’s in French. If you would like an English copy, I’d love to translate it for you! Also, many of the images and formatting I had on my page file didn’t not transfer over onto wordpress. If you would like a pdf of the workshop in its entirety, please let me know!

ΠΟΛΙΤΕΙΑ Α

Atelier sur la République, Livre 1, de Platon

Hellénistes de 1^ère et Terminale

1 heure

Un grand merci à Mme. Clément qui m’inspire chaque jours à continuer ma discussion avec les auteurs du monde ancien.

Louie Kulber

Pomona College

1. Introduction et Instructions [5 min.] 

Désignez quelqu’un pour prendre des notes de la part de votre groupe ( cette personne présentera les conclusions du group auprès du reste de la classe ). Certes, tout le monde aura le droit et sera même encouragé de contribuer à la discussion.

Désignez quelqu’un pour surveiller le temps. Essayez de rester à l’heure.

Des outils pratiques pour faire de la version:

• Lemmatiseur (dictionnaire): https://outils.biblissima.fr/fr/eulexis-web/?
• Si vous appuyez sur le numéro entre crochets (e.g. [331c]) avec votre souris, le lien vous mènerait à Perseus, un site très pratique pour faire de la version.
  • Appuyez sur « load » pour voire la traduction en anglais.
  • Appuyez sur un mot en Grec pour voire la définition et le cas (ou dans le cas d’un verbe, la conjugaison). Par exemple, en appuyant sur le mot « δικαιοσύνην », nous obtenons:

 1) Parfois la définition n’est pas fiable/pas pratique.

2) Evitez de trop utiliser ces sites afin de ne pas perdre de temps!

2. Trois définitions de la justice [20 min.] 

La République est un dialogue qui traite le sujet de « Qu’est-ce que la Justice ? ». Notamment dans le premier livre, trois personnages tentent de définir la Justice. Mais, leurs définitions sont réfutées par Socrate. Lisons les traductions mot-à-mot et traduisons les passages en bleu !

1. La définition de Céphale [331c]

(Σωκρατης) τοῦτο δ ̓ αὐτό, En ce qui concerne cette chose elle-même,  τὴν

δικαιοσύνην, la justice, πότερα parmi les deux τὴν ἀλήθειαν αὐτὸ φήσομεν εἶναι

allons-nous dire que c’est [l’act de dire] la vérité ἁπλῶς uniquement οὕτως ainsi καὶ et

τὸ ἀποδιδόναι l’act de rendre ἄν τίς τι παρά του λάβῃ si qq’un reçoit qqchose de

qq’un d’autre , ἢ καὶ αὐτὰ ταῦτα ou aussi ces choses elles-mêmes ἔστιν ἐνίοτε est-il

possible de parfois μὲν δικαίως, justement, ἐνίοτε δὲ ἀδίκως autrefois injustement

ποιεῖν; les faire ?

2. La définition de Polémarque, fils de Céphale [332d]

(Σωκρατης) Εἶεν· Bon :ἡ le οὖν δὴ alors certainement τίσιν à qui τί quoi

ἀποδιδοῦσα donne τέχνη art δικαιοσύνη ἂν καλοῖτο; s’appellerait la justice ?

(Πολέμαρχος) Εἰ μέν τι, Si, ἔφη, dit-il, δεῖ il faut ἀκολουθεῖν, suivre, ὦ

Σώκρατες, Ô Socrates τοῖς ἔμπροσθεν εἰρημένοις, les choses dites avant, ἡ [c’est]

l’[art qui] τοῖς φίλοις τε καὶ ἐχθροῖς aux amis et aux ennemies ὠφελίας τε καὶ

βλάβας du bien et du mal ἀποδιδοῦσα donne.

(Σωκρατης)Τὸ τοὺς φίλους ἄρα εὖ ποιεῖν καὶ τοὺς ἐχθροὺς

κακῶς δικαιοσύνην λέγει;

3. La définition de Thrasymaque [338c]

(Θρασύμαχος)ἄκουε δή, ἦ δ᾽ ὅς. φημὶ γὰρ ἐγὼ εἶναι τὸ δίκαιον

οὐκ ἄλλο τι ἢ τὸ τοῦ κρείττονος συμφέρον.

3. Réflection [20 min.]

Certains érudits de Platon pensent que le dialogue n’est pas uniquement un dialogue entre Socrate et les personnages, mais également un dialogue entre Socrate et le lecteur.

1. Qu’en pensez-vous des trois définitions ? Qu’est-ce qu’il y a de bien dans ces définitions ? De mauvais ?   [10 min.]

Tandis que Socrate n’offre pas sa propre définition dans le Livre 1, il dit :

οὐδαμοῦ γὰρ δίκαιον οὐδένα ἡμῖν ἐφάνη ὂν βλάπτειν.  [335e]

2. Si Socrate a bien raison, quelles sont les conséquences d’une telle condition quand on pense de la Justice en pratique ? [5 min.]

3. Selon vous, qu’est-ce que la Justice ? [5 min.]

4. Conclusion [15 min.]

Revenez dans la ‘main room’ pour discuter vos conclusions.

A traduire ensemble: ὁ δὲ ἀνεξέταστος βίος οὐ βιωτὸς ἀνθρώπῳ

– Socrates, Apologie [38a]

Vous êtes entrer en dialogue avec Platon! Et en Grec, c’est un dialogue d’avantage plus personnel. Je vous félicite!