Reading from Philosophy, Reading from Literature: Apology of Socrates as a Didactic Strategy at the Polimodal Level

Abstract

This paper seeks to continue the path opened by a previous study on the didactics of our respective disciplines at the Polimodal level, in which we proposed reading a play about the philosopher Baruch Spinoza and analyzing different aspects of it from the perspectives of Philosophy and Literature. On this occasion, we aim to show how a philosophical text, Socrates’ Apology, can be approached from both disciplinary fields.

Although many teachers use non-traditional resources—literary texts, cartoons, films, newspaper articles—in the teaching of Philosophy, it is generally difficult to find bibliography that systematically describes how such an experience could be carried out.

In addition to the philosophical issues that can be identified in the Apology—such as the concept of philosophy, philosophical method, educational conception, and ethical values—from the perspective of Literature this text also makes it possible to approach teaching within a current theoretical framework: discourse theory.

By making visible the links established between the different discursive practices of a society, both artistic and non-artistic, as well as the divergences between reality and discourse, students will have the possibility of reflecting on the fallacy of certain disciplinary prejudices that have hindered their access to literary and philosophical texts. In this way, they will broaden their reading of the world as a great cultural text.