Noo is noo come. Hi, I'm Peter Adamson, and you're listening to the History of Philosophy Podcast brought to you with the support of the philosophy department at Kings College London and the LMU in Munich online at

www history of philosophy net. Today's episode at W.W. History of Philosophy. Net.

Today's episode,

On the Shoulders of Giants, Philosophy at Schacht.

Teachers have always evaluated their students, and nowadays the students are invited to return the favor.

I've taught in the United States, England, and Germany.

In all these places I have had to distribute forms at the end of each semester so my students could anonymously voice their opinion of the quality of my teaching.

It's a useful exercise, even if it reflects the modern day tendency to think of students simply as paying customers, who need to be happy with the level of service they're getting.

Another sign of the same tendency is the availability of websites where you can rate your professor, even saying whether the teacher in question is hot.

Happily, this doesn't yet exist in Germany, so I have been spared having to face statistical evidence as to whether or not I am Heise.

Reflecting on one's instructors is not only a modern day activity though. The greatest teacher evaluation in history is surely Plato's dialogues,

which explore the character and techniques of Plato's teacher, Socrates, more deeply than any paperwork

or website could hope to do.

As a bonus, we learned from Al-Sibieties's speech in Plato's symposium that Socrates was most definitely hot.

The medieval's two like to comment on their instructors.

For a forerunner of today's negative evaluations, just think of Peter Appellard's scathing remarks

about his teachers, Anson of Leont and William of Champot.

And for a glowing report from the same period, we can turn to John of Salisbury.

He's going to be appearing routinely in the coming episodes since he is a richly

informative source for the intellectual scene in the 12th century and wrote a major

treatise on political philosophy, the Polycraticus, as well as a defense of the logical arts, the metallocon.

In the metallogicon, John praises the effective pedagogical techniques of Bernard of Chart.

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