This article critiques the predominantly Eurocentric and phallocentric focus of Rachal’s “A Symposium,” recently published in Adult Education Quarterly. It is argued that Rachal constructs a dialogue that privileges a philosophical canon whose continued legitimacy is being challenged both in philosophical and adult education circles. The form of presentation in “A Symposium,” the Socratic method, belies the universal and eternal nature of knowledge, a theme that is evident throughout “A Symposium”’s dialogue. Also questioned is the selection of guests to the dinner party as reflecting a male and Eurocentric bias that masks the centrality of identity, social location, and power in the construction of knowledge. “A Symposium” represents a missed opportunity to raise some critical and substantive issues of relevance to adult educators concerning the construction and consequence of knowledge as reflected in current educational and philosophical debates on knowledge and power.
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