From Maria Papademetris (‘24):
On a sunny Sunday morning before classes had begun, Professor Mordechai Levy-Eichel’s Philosophy class gathered on Zoom for an experiment: a dramatic reading of Plato’s dialogue Euthyphro in the spirit of ancient Greek drama. Pairs of students took turns working through the conversation out loud, concentrating on tone and pronunciation as well as sense to convey the arrogance and confusion of Euthyphro as well as the flattery and sarcastic tricks of Socrates. Students observed that this helped them follow the flow and buildup of the argument, and that they had a new appreciation for Plato’s portrayal of Socrates as an expert debater, quick to see logical flaws but patient in uncovering them. This dramatic exercise helped the class explore the dialogue as a drama as well as a treatise and absorb its ideas together in the spirit of Directed Studies.