Szifris on Socrates and Aristotle: The Role of Ancient Philosophers in the Self-Understanding of Desisting Prisoners @KirstineSzifris @LoaderIan

Kirstine Szifris, University of Cambridge, has published Socrates and Aristotle: The Role of Ancient Philosophers in the Self‐Understanding of Desisting Prisoners at 56 Howard Journal of Crime and Justice 419 (2017). Here is the abstract.

This article argues that providing a forum for philosophical conversation within prison education is relevant to the self‐understanding and desistance of prisoners. Semi‐structured interviews with 20 participants of an in‐prison philosophy class in Scotland investigated the personal relevance of engaging in philosophical dialogue. Findings demonstrated that philosophical dialogue develops participants' self‐understanding, providing vocabulary for alternative self‐definition. The philosophy class achieved this by encouraging self‐reflection, developing communication skills, and providing a forum for positive prosocial interaction with peers. These skills are essential in reframing self‐understanding which is, in turn, essential to desistance. 

The full text is not available from SSRN.

Bateman on Socrates and Cicero: Functionality as Justice

C. G. Bateman, University of British Columbia Faculty of Law, has published Socrates and Cicero: Functionality as Justice at 11 International Zeitschrift 11 (December 2016). Here is the abstract.

Socrates and Cicero thought of justice simpliciter as connected to functionality. This paper considers some of the characteristics of what they thought of as justice as well as the confluence of ideas in various selections from both authors.

Download the article from SSRN at the link.

Updating Socrates for the 21st Century Law Classroom

Stephen E. Henderson and Joseph T. Thai, both of the University of Oklahoma College of Law, are publishing Teaching Criminal Procedure: Why Socrates Would Use YouTube in the St. Louis University Law Journal. Here is the abstract.

In this invited contribution to the Law Journal’s annual teaching volume, we pay some homage to the great philosopher whose spirit allegedly guides our classrooms, but in service of two concrete goals. One, we employ dialogue to describe the “nuts and bolts” of teaching criminal procedure, most of which are equally relevant to any doctrinal law school course (including course description, office hours, seating charts and attendance, class decorum and recording, student participation, laptops, textbooks, class preparation and presentation, and exams). Two, we explain the benefits of using multimedia in the classroom, including a few of the many modules found on our Crimprof Multipedia service. We organize its benefits into four “h’s” (humor, humanization, headlines, and hypotheticals), and we give several examples of each for a topic that pervades criminal procedure: racial (in)justice.

Download the article from SSRN at the link.

Socrates

Ah, the Socratic Method, pedagogical tool beloved of law students. NOT. Angus Kennedy examines some new books devoted to the life and legacy of Socrates here, who is supposed to have annoyed those around him with that device so much that they told him to begone permanently. Well, he did some other things that annoyed his neighbors too. Notes Mr. Kennedy, "In Plato’s Meno, Socrates offends a man called Anytus by suggesting that even great men such as Themistocles and Thucydides were not capable of teaching their sons to be good. Anytus warns him to be careful, that he is ‘too ready to speak evil of men’. It was Anytus who brought the prosecution against Socrates in 399 BC, on charges of impiety and corrupting the youth, which led to Socrates’ execution."