This paper is about dialogic listening as a
precondition for meaningful engagement in
Socratic dialogues and for music. In order
to arrive at a better understanding of what
constitutes dialogic listening in the context of
educational philosophical dialogues, I first shed
light on the practice of philosophy teaching based
on Nelson & Heckmann’s neo-Socratic paradigm
and link this practice to Plato’s dialogues. I
then argue that the activity of listening to an
interlocutor during Socratic dialogue…
Read moreThis paper is about dialogic listening as a
precondition for meaningful engagement in
Socratic dialogues and for music. In order
to arrive at a better understanding of what
constitutes dialogic listening in the context of
educational philosophical dialogues, I first shed
light on the practice of philosophy teaching based
on Nelson & Heckmann’s neo-Socratic paradigm
and link this practice to Plato’s dialogues. I
then argue that the activity of listening to an
interlocutor during Socratic dialogues on the one
hand, and listening to music on the other, may in
both cases be understood as a precondition for
the process of engagement and, consequently,
the co-creation of meaning as a central objective
to the philosophical practice. I show this by
discussing both Buber and Gadamer, combining
their insights into three interrelated features of
dialogic listening: 1) openness, 2) reciprocity, and
3) awareness, which apply to both philosophical
dialogues and music. Ultimately, I attempt to
make a case for the complementary application of
music in the philosophical educational practice.
