Table of Contents
Introduction
Plato (427 BC – 347 BC) was from a powerful Athenian family and was related to few political icons of that period (Guthrie, 1986). He became the renowned Philosopher and established a philosophical school – ‘the Academy” and continued to writing and teaching (Cooper,2001). Plato was much influenced by Socrates as he is the narrator in most of his philosophical dialogues. The Republic, written by Plato around 380 BC, is a Socratic discussion that deals with justice, order and character of the just city-state (Kallipolis), and the just man. Plato’s Republic is one the intellectually best works on philosophy and political theory till date.
Plato begins his book the Republic with the discussion of what justice is. It then continues to illustrate justice by analogy in the human soul. This view of Plato on education depicts his objective of education and guides the learners in a proper direction to clarify the significance of his theory of aesthetic education. According to Plato, directing the soul towards light should be the main objective of education. He asserts that education should not just impart knowledge to the soul but bring out the hidden talents by showing the right path. It should touch the evil at its base, and reorganize an individual’s way of living and one’s outlook towards life.
Plato’s views of education are in many ways commendable. In the Republic they are partly Greek and partly ideal, beginning with the ordinary curriculum of the Greek youth, and extending to after-life. Plato is one of the first writers to state that education is to understand the whole of life, and to be prepared for another in which education begins again.
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Plato’s Aesthetics
Kalon combines our sense of the aesthetically fine and morally noble. Plato associates a Form with beauty (Pappas, 2017). Art, mostly as signified by poetry, considered as dangerous to the soul than any other Plato speaks of, while beauty is very close to a greatest good. Plato’s readers will not find a single aesthetic theory in the dialogues. Aesthetics can be explored in the concepts of beauty, imitation, inspiration (Pappas, 2017).
Plato considers that music/poetry has literature which are divided into true or false. The good man’s poetry is claimed to be both imitative and non-imitative. It is imitative in a good sense, and not imitative in a bad sense (Anas, 2001). Bad poetry and art imitate in the sense of merely copying the appearances of things. Good poetry and art, on the other hand, imitate in the sense of giving a distinguishable depiction of ideals and concepts in a form that can be appreciated by those who are not intellectuals (Anas, 2001).
Aesthetic delight needs to be steered towards moral virtue. Children hear stories that are untrue or most of the times one or two grains truth in a heap of falsehood. He begins the education of the child at the age (above 5years) where he can understand and receive ideas, He asserts the child has to be first taught about the moral values and religious truths. He stresses that children should be brought up in a happy environment, where they could sense and grasp the truthfulness and goodness. Children must imitate/play the roles of virtuous persons only, otherwise they will sympathise with vice/the lower orders.
He believed that the children shouldn’t be exposed to the ancient stories about the ancient God/Goddess about lust, deceiving, lying and the misbehaviour of the Homeric Heroes as this could leave a lasting impact on the young minds. He therefore hates to acknowledge that poems have any beauty. Poetry too therefore imitates no more than appearance. He says that illusions in the poems strengthen the worst part of the soul and turn it against the best. (Pappas, 2017).
Plato believes that good and bad rhythm directs toward a good and bad style. A song or rhyme comprises of the subject, the harmony, and the rhythm.
The last two parts are dependent on the content/subject. The strains of the subject which are sorrowful or grieving, convivial and Lydian harmonies or relaxed harmonies are condemned by Plato in the content or poems. Rhythm and harmony reach the inward places of the soul, on which they mightily fasten, imparting grace, and making the soul of him who is rightly educated graceful, or of him who is ill-educated ungraceful.The two forms of music rhythms that remain are the Dorian and the Phrygian. The Dorian is for war that expresses courage. The Phrygian form is for peace, which inculcates obedience or instruction or religious feeling. Greek epic and tragic poetry in Plato’s argument that popular entertainment at the ancient times lies its audience into a degraded life (Nehamas, 1998).
Plato guidelines the censorship of poetry and literature in education (Turan, 2011). Poetry should depict Gods as good and only as causes of good; as unchanging in form and as beings who refrain from lies and deceit. Different measures recommended by Socrates that the education should not portray the underworld as bad place, to prevent the guardians from fear of death.
The Gods and heroes should not be presented as grieving or lamenting to develop courage in guardians. Poetry should prevent people’s misbehaviour and avoid the cruel laughing. The poetry and stories should develop the sense in the young minds to tell the truth, but also will to lie for the good of the city. It should prepare the youth to be disciplined and obedient. It should not take them to path of greed, sin and vice. The music and harmonies should be simple and develop courage and religious feeling.
Socrates then advices of what kind of stories should be told. He prefers manners in simple narration and imitation of the stories in first person. The guardians should imitate what is best for them. He also believes that good art can influence the people to follow their reason. Plato then proceeds with the importance of physical education to make the guardians ready for the war. The physical education or gymnastics are to be carried out with healthy, careful diet and cultivate habits to maintain healthy life avoiding the doctors (377b-405c).
Physical education or gymnastic is given during the time of development of muscle and growth. The simplicity as enforced in music, is also brought in the gymnastics or in physical education. Plato points out that the physical education would be erratic if it isn’t trained with the mind and the exercise could be overdone. Intense training of the body would result in headache or falling asleep during lecture on philosophy.
The time of training is entirely separated from the time of literary education. the ages of fourteen and seventeen in mere bodily exercise is given to develop strength and the skills of war, martial arts. During the period of physical education only the body is trained and isn’t trained for the intellectual ability. Plato treats both literature education and physical exercise as two different things.
He affirms both music and gymnastics are intended to benefit the soul and are designed to cultivation of mind and improvement of body respectively. He opines that body is the servant of mind and the subjection of the body is advantageous to the both body and mind. Physical education isn’t just for the body and muscle development but for the soul, as the body would surely benefit if the soul is in good condition, but isn’t necessary that soul would benefit if the body is in good condition. Physical education prepares the exertion of body to be fit.
Plato discusses the curriculum that a would-be philosopher-king must study which included subjects such as music, geometry, arithmetic and astronomy. Until age 18, would-be guardians are trained in basic intellectual study and physical training.
Then two years of military training is pursued. Later, a correction is made where 3 years of martial arts training and 2 years of warfare (preparing for war skills) is replaced with study of philosophy for 5years. After completing the physical education and philosophy, Mathematics is taught till age 30, and then five years of dialectic training is provided. Next 15 years, the would-be philosopher kings are subjected to allegory of the cave and lead from there. They are entirely aware of the form of good, and are fully mature when they turn 50, and are ready to lead.
Tripartite Soul
Plato’s Republic in the book 4 brings forth a new philosophy of soul that states that an embodied human soul has three parts or aspects, namely reason, spirit, and appetite. According to Plato, the main goal of education is to produce adults who successfully contribute to the happiness of the whole community, by themselves enjoying happiness in the same community (Barrow, 1976). Secondly, he stresses on the importance of abstract sciences in education so as to compel the soul to use pure intelligence in search of pure health. Plato’s perspective of education of music, mathematics, gymnastics and dialectics presented in Republic ensures that the three aspects of soul are in harmony with each other. Proper education is required to keep all these components of the soul balanced.
Reason is the part of soul that is related to knowledge and truth, of its own nature. It is concerned to guide and regulate the life that it is or how it should be, in charge of, preferably in a way that is knowledgeable by perception and that it considers the concerns both of each of the three parts distinctly and of the sole as a complete. These concerns must include an individual’s bodily requirements, seemingly through apprehensions of appetite.
Naturally, spirit is to honour and in general it is for acknowledgement and reverence by others. As a motivating strength, it helps in self-assertion and determination. When its desires are unfulfilled, it results in emotional responses such as anger and outrage, and to behaviours that expresses and naturally comes through these behaviours. Socrates considers spirit to be a natural supporter of reason, at least part of its function to stand by reason in such conflicts that may arise between it and appetite.
The appetite aspect of soul is mainly concerned with food, drink and sex. This gives rise to desire for these and similar things that are based, simply and immediately, supposed that achieving the pertinent object of desire is, or would be, pleasant. Socrates also considers appetite to the money-oriented, as matured people tend to be determinedly attached to money, given that mostly by all sources of money, its primary requirements are pleased (Plato, 380BC).
Having recognised the tripartite soul, Socrates states the virtues of the individual (353c). A person is wise if he is governed by the part of the soul that knows what would be beneficial for a part and for the whole. A person is courageous if he has spirit to preserve himself from the pleasures and pains and the decisions reached by the rational part, and a person is temperate or Moderate if the three parts agree that the rational part lead. They are fair if each part of the soul attends to its function and not the function of another. It follows from this definition that one cannot be just if one doesn’t have the other basic virtues.
According to the Socrates’ principle, contradictory actions, likings and circumstances cannot be dispensed to a particular object that is related to the same part that is associated with the similar object at that particular time.
It can be agreed that sometimes the person desires something and acts opposite to that. Socrates agrees that it happens frequently, at times the soul would desire for a subject but act averse to the same subject at that time. He narrates an example when a person feels thirsty and wishes to drink but at the same time controls his thirst and doesn’t drink and succeeds in refraining from drinking in spite of being thirsty.
From the scene where the discussion takes, it is asserted that there are at least two different subjects pertaining to a human soul. From these contraries one can be given to one and the other allotted to the another. While Socrates recognizes appetite and reason to be unique parts of the soul, he tries to prioritize other types of conflicts between desires, from which he reveals about the spirit, another component of soul.
Plato agrees with the Socrates narration that things performance depending on the virtues that suit them, if they have all suitable virtues then it performs well, if they pursue relevant vice they perform bad.
These virtues are then directed towards soul and the actions like caring and well living are the duties of the soul and the good soul lives a caring and self-disciplined life happily and also reflects on the lives of other people where as the bad soul isn’t responsible and is sinful leading to wretched life. Therefore, it can be concluded that Socrates draws to an intervening conclusion that the just person is the one whose soul is happy, whereas the person whose soul is unjust is wretched.
Conclusion
Plato conveys the ideology of Socrates in the Republic. The education system is quite different from the modern system where the children are involved in literary education when they are about 5 years and can get idea of the literature. Plato was against the ancient Greek education where the children were taught and told the stories about the Greek gods and demigods who arbitrarily punished and imitation of the stories which included the treacherous, sorrowful, and deceiving like the Achilles and other Homer & Hesiod stories.
He believed that stories and lessons taught or imitation of such stories at small ages will have the impact on the whole life. Such stories of the vice, the greed and impiety should be censored and the initial education should only include the moral stories and religious education which lead to the truthfulness and good.
He unfolds that further education is carried by gymnastics for the physical fitness of the body; mathematics and dialectics and allegory of the cave, help in development of mind and lead the just life with a good soul. The beauty or aesthetic of poetry and music which turns towards the truth and makes a good soul. This helps for the balanced part of soul to decide on what is beneficial to an individual and lead a happy life, which is the ultimate goal of education.
References
- Annas, J. (1981) An Introduction to Plato’s Republic, Oxford: Clarendon, Chapters 4-6.
- Barrow, R. (1976) Plato and Education, London: Routledge, , Chapters 1-4 & 6-8.
- Cooper, D.E. (2001) Plato in Fifty Thinkers on Education: From Confucius to Dewey, edited by J.A. Palmer, London & New York: Routledge.
- Guthrie, W.K.C. (1986) A History of Greek Philosophy vol. IV, CUP, Chapter VII, Sections 2-7.
- Nehamas, A. (1999) Virtues of Authenticity: Essays on Plato and Socrates, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, Chapters 12-13.
- Pappas, N. (2017) Plato’s Aesthetics, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2017 Edition), Zalta, E. N. (ed.), 2017, Available from https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2017/entries/plato-aesthetics/ [Accessed 14th January 2019]
- Plato (380BC) Republic, 376d-444e.
- Plato(1998) The Republic by Plato. Translated by B. Jowett, 1998.
- Turan, S. (2011) Plato’s Concept of Education in Republic and Aristotle’s Concept of Education in Politics, Education and Science, 2011,vol. 36(162).
