JCERJournal of Contemporary Educational Research2208-84662208-8474Bio-Byword Scientific Publishing Pty. Ltd.10.26689/jcer.v10i6.15466ArticleThe Educational Task of Teaching Ethically: Plato and the Republic and the Challenge of Education, Authority, and Moral Guidance in a Pluralistic Erahttps://artdesignp.com/journal/JCER/10/6/10.26689/jcer.v10i6.15466HeWenyan20261062026-07-15The paper re-examines Plato’s Republic as a classical source of the ethical duty of teaching. Plato explained the idea of education as not the imparting of information but rather the turning of the soul away from opinion to the truth through the allegory of the cave. However, the philosophically trained person has to go back into the cave where truth meets convention, power, and resistance. The motion of ascent and descent reveals a persistent problem of modern teachers: what should be done to lead students to the good without taking over the monopoly on moral authority? Based on the theory of education by Plato, the Socratic method of teaching, the current teacher ethics, moral education, and value pluralism, the paper states that teaching is not a value-free technology or an authoritarian teaching of morals. It is instead an ethical and dialogic process that develops the ability of the students to perceive, ask questions, make judgments, and behave in responsible ways. Teachers ought not to assert any sovereign ownership of truth in a pluralistic era; however, they are unable to leave their students to relativism. Their challenge is to establish educational environments wherein students acquire the skills to evaluate appearances, arrange desires, face conflicting values, and build up responsive moral agency.

Plato, 1992, Republic (G. M. A. Grube Trans., C. D. C. Reeve Rev.), Hackett Publishing Company.

Annas J, 1981, An Introduction to Plato’s Republic. Oxford University Press.

Vlastos G, 1991, Socrates: Ironist and Moral Philosopher. Cambridge University Press.

Brickhouse TC, Smith ND, 1994, Plato’s Socrates. Oxford University Press.

Mintz AI, 2018, Plato’s Socrates, Philosophy and Education. Springer.

MacIntyre A, 2007, After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory (3rd ed.). Notre Dame, University of Notre Dame Press.

Campbell E, 2003, The Ethical Teacher. Open University Press.

Hansen DT, 2001, The Moral Heart of Teaching Explored: The Way Toward Teachers Creed. Teachers College Press.

Sockett H, 1993, The Moral Base for Teacher Professionalism. Teachers College Press.

Berlin I, 2002, Liberty (H. Hardy, Ed.). Oxford University Press.

Galston WA, 2002, Liberal Pluralism: What Does Value Pluralism Mean to Political Theory and Practice? Cambridge University Press.

Nussbaum MC, 1997, The Cultivation of Humanity: A Classical Defence of Reform in Liberal Education. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.

Gutmann A, 1999, Democratic Education (Rev. ed.). Princeton University Press.

Biesta G, 2009, Good Education in the Era of Measurement: Why It Is Necessary to Return to the Question of Purpose in Education. Educational Assessment, Evaluation and Accountability, 21(1): 33–46.

Freire P, 2000, Pedagogy of the Oppressed (30th Anniversary Edition; M. B. Ramos, Trans.). Continuum. The original work was published in 1970.