Props & Plato

Students on the High School Summer Program woke on Tuesday morning ready to tackle some challenging questions and conversations in their second day of classes. Refreshed by a night of rest after yesterday’s activities, they filled St. Joseph Commons for a hot breakfast of eggs, bacon, and hashbrowns. Many, a bit nervous about their first Euclid demonstrations, reviewed their props before class.

In each of the morning’s classes, three students were called upon to demonstrate a proposition. Drawing diagrams on the chalkboard, they explained the steps in Euclid’s arguments for constructing an equilateral triangle, reproducing a line equal to another given line, and cutting a line equal to a shorter line. Though these constructions may not seem ground-breaking at first glance, each proposition in Euclid’s Elements is foundational to later, more complicated propositions, such as proving the Pythagorean Theorem or constructing three-dimensional shapes.

After a break and midday Mass, students enjoyed each other’s company at lunch, talking with their professors (known as tutors at TAC) and peers over plates of orange chicken and rice. “I’m really excited for our Plato discussion later,” one student shared. “We have so many intelligent people in class, and it’s really cool.”

In their after-lunch class, the high schoolers discussed Plato’s dialogue Euthyphro. The work recounts a conversation between Socrates and the titular character, as Socrates insists that Euthyphro, who claims to know what piety is, give a definition of the virtue. Socrates inquires whether something is pious because it is pleasing to the gods, or pleasing to the gods because it is pious. Though Euthyphro never gives Socrates a definition that satisfies the philosopher, the students worked together in a dialogue of their own to understand what the word means.

Whether their discussions fully settled the question or left them with some of Socrates’ puzzlement, the students’ time with Euthyphro nevertheless had to come to an end. The high schoolers left their classrooms to have some more fun in the sun during the afternoon’s recreation. This evening, they will gather for study hall and swing-dance lessons before returning to a party in their residence halls.

Come back to the Summer Program Blog tomorrow to read all about it!