Luce Irigaray: A philosophy of teaching in ancient and modern perspective

Luce Irigaray offers a powerful ‘philosophy of teaching’ that connects with the ancient paradigm. In this paper, I discuss the relationship between teaching and love as this is depicted in Plato, and I look at Irigaray's reading of the Symposium. Then I show how Irigaray's own philosophy can help us to think about the ideal teaching situation and its most essential aspects, including dialogue, difference, inspiration and embodiment. To be clear, this paper does not offer a comprehensive account of Irigaray's thought, but it extrapolates from her work on teaching and related themes such as love; and it sketches the outline of a guiding ideal, and a philosophy of teaching, which can help us in the current educational context.