Education, philosophy, and emancipation: between Socrates and Jacotot in The ignorant teacher

Abstract

This article investigates the relationship between teaching, philosophy, and emancipation based on Jacques Rancière’s The Ignorant Schoolmaster and the figure of Joseph Jacotot. Starting from the concept of intellectual emancipation and the principle of equality of intelligences, it proposes a critical dialogue with the Platonic tradition, particularly with the Allegory of the Cave and the Socratic method present in the Meno. The work is structured in three parts: first, it examines the distinction between emancipation and stultification in the educational process, demonstrating how explanatory pedagogy institutes a circle of powerlessness by presupposing the inequality of intelligences; second, it analyzes the figure of Socrates as a master, investigating the ambiguity of his role — sometimes stultifying the slave, sometimes leading Meno to aporia — and questioning whether Socratic refutation constitutes genuine emancipation or a veiled form of guiding the other’s intelligence; third, it revisits the Allegory of the Cave from the perspective of emancipation, distinguishing the different types of masters that appear in it. It concludes that, although social emancipation remains problematic, individual intellectual emancipation is possible when one starts from the principle of equality of intelligences, opening paths for each individual to pursue their own intellectual adventures.