Plato’s
Theory of Education
Ish
Mishra
Introduction
“The
ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas, i.e. the class
which is the ruling material force of society, is at the same
time its ruling intellectual force. The class which has the
means of material production at its disposal, consequently also controls at the
same time the means of mental production, so that the ideas of those who lack
the means of mental production are subject to it. The ruling ideas are nothing
more than the ideal expression of the dominant material relationships grasped
as ideas; hence of the relationships which make
the one class the ruling one, therefore, the ideas of its dominance. The
individuals composing the ruling class possess among other things
consciousness, and therefore think. Insofar, therefore, as they rule as a class
and determine the extent and compass of an epoch, it is self-evident that they
do this in its whole range, hence among other things rule also as thinkers, as
producers of ideas, and regulate the production and distribution of the ideas
of their age; thus their ideas are the ruling ideas of the epoch.”
Karl Marx in German
Ideology[1]
Education
is the key to Plato’s scheme of a just and virtuous society. Ruling classes of
all the epochs following disintegration of the primitive communism most
reliable and effective instrument of producing ideas and thereby creating the
form and level of consciousness. Not only it has historically played role of
ideological apparatus but also of revolutionary changes, depending on the
character of education [2].Plato realized this with his
experiences during the 12 years of wandering after Socrates’s execution in BC
399. To realize his conceived notion Ideal State, first task he undertook was
to establish Academy in the natural ambience at the outskirts of Athens,
the first anticipation of the modern university system[3]. Plato talks about social justice and
individual justice and the just individual is creation of an appropriate and
hence just education. The edifice of Plato’s theory of the Ideal State ruled by
the philosopher kings/queens rests on the pillars of his theories of education
and the communism. Plato realized the importance of education in defining and
controlling knowledge for a hegemonic social order. Our Vedic and Buddhist
ancestors had this realization much before Greeks, though for contrasting
goals, former for restricting the acquisition of knowledge defined by them and
monopolizing it for the perpetuation of social hegemony and later for
ubiquitous spread of knowledge defined by it in terms of real life situations
aimed at the destruction of the hegemony.
Education is so immensely vital in Plato’s
scheme that it is the subject of focus in all the books (chapters) from ii to
vii except book v of the Republic. Rousseau calls it “the finest treatise on
education that ever was written”[4]. Through state controlled and
maintained education system the rulers could create such mindsets that would
help retaining the social order and harmony. For Plato, the State’s priority
must be education that shall take care of all the other issues. Ever since, the
education has remained the most effective ideological apparatus in the hands of
the ruling classes. Plato is the first western philosopher to theorize and put
in practice through the establishment of Academy, the concept of
institutionalized public education system in the west. China and India had already well-established
systems of institutionalized education. In ancient India, there were two
competing education educational systems. The Brahmanical Gurkul system, an
authoritarian system of instruction in which the Guru (teacher) was beyond
question. In some Sanskrit maxims, he is equated with God[5]. Neither questioning nor any
debate-discussions were allowed, whereas knowledge comes from not what is
taught, but from questioning what is taught.
It imparted the education of conformity; conformity with the established
Brahmanical hierarchical social order. The children of only the ruling classes in
the fourfold social division were allowed the access to education. Buddhist
tradition was a revolutionary, dialectical system of debate-discussion, and
democratic discourse. There is neither scope nor the need of distraction into Buddhist
and Brahmanical schools of education; it is just to allude to the historic fact
that education may be an instrument of revolution as well as of reaction. The
modern education of scientific revolution and Enlightenment played a
revolutionary role by emancipating the knowledge system from the clutches of
theology. It was essential for the bourgeois democratic revolution against the
regressive feudalism. The liberal capitalism based on the industrial revolution
needed scientific temper and inventive mindset to question and invent. The
logical corollary of scientific education is questioning its claim of the end
of history. Need of neo-liberal global capital is no more rationality but
conformity. There is no scope of going into the history of changes in the
nature of institutional education in correspondence with the changing needs of
the ruling classes. Plato is also the first philosopher in the
western tradition to conceptualize state maintained and controlled education. In
recent times, particularly since the globalization, states have been abdicating
their maintenance responsibility while intensifying the control over it[6].
History of knowledge is much older
than the history of education. In fact the history knowledge is as old as the
history humanity. Knowledge is continuous dialectical process of learning and
unlearning ever since the humans began to distinguish themselves from animal
kingdom by producing and reproducing their livelihood by application of labour
and the active mind, a human species-specific attribute. In ancient primitive
societies, those considered to be knowledgeable were entrusted with positions
like priest or commander and consulted about righteousness of particular views
or acts. The journey of knowledge through learning-unlearning process from experiences
and experiments has covered a long distance, to put it metaphorically, from
Stone Age to cyber age. The intellectuals of every generation critically
consolidate and build upon the achievements of previous generations. There is
no scope of detailed discussion on the history of knowledge; I have dealt with
it, elsewhere.[7] The history of education is almost as old as
the division of society into classes of haves and have-nots with disintegration
of primitive communities. The transformation of subsistence economy into
surplus economy and appropriation of surplus led to their control over the
society’s means of production. Systems of education began to construct the
knowledge in the interest of the dominant classes and provide validity to their
hegemony. Plato believed that knowledge is the highest virtue hence pleaded for
the supremacy of knowledge but not the knowledge of worldly things, the
knowledge of the Idea of Good, as defined by him. Out of the huge population
only a very few have the potentiality and ability to know the Idea of good. How
is it determined and realized? It is
done through education lasting up to the age of philosophers.
The importance of education in Plato’s political scheme
Plato’s priority for education can be easily understood
as half of the space of the Republic is devoted to education. He
considered education to be sure cure of the all ills of the society. Like his
theory of communism, the theory of education is also a logical corollary of the
theory of ideal state that he theoretically constructs for his central concern
of the justice. Justice for him is everyone’s acting according to his nature.
And one can know and realize one’s nature though education. The basis of the
ideal state is philosophy and study of philosophy requires the well planned
educational system. Buddhist education was aimed at breaking an established
class society of Varnashram order based on the hegemony of knowledge.
Brahmanical system of knowledge was to defend the existing class society while
Plato’s aimed at creating a class society on the basis of the hegemony of the
knowledge. For him taking care of education is state’s foremost responsibility,
as it is instrumental to create politically unequal classes and maintain it in
the context of politically egalitarian Athens, notwithstanding the economic
inequalities.
In Plato’s Republic, the authority of the ideal
state ruled by the philosophers is absolute that requires absolute
subordination of individual to the state. Therefore, the education must be so
designed that molds the mindset to suit the law of the state, as envisioned by
the rulers. Rousseau in his critique of the civilization opines that civility
introduces duality. One wants to look what one is not – the eternal
contradiction of essence and appearance. This duality is most clearly visible
in traditional Indian families. Parents and children live under the same roof
for years without ever democratically interacting, they only hierarchically
communicate. Children internalize these values of hierarchical relations of
‘discipline’ and obedience as the natural and the righteous way. Discipline and unquestioned obedience to
superior is underlined in the beginning of the discussion on education for
preparation of future generations[8]. This is done by habituating them to think into
just one way, perceived to be the righteous way, by designers of course-curriculum
or the teacher. There is no scope of any dissenting ideas in the ideal state
ruled by philosopher king. Such ideas of the past must be strictly censored. “Then
the first thing will be to establish a censorship of the writers of fiction,
and let the censors receive any tale of fiction which is good, and reject the
bad; and we will desire mothers and nurses to tell their children the authorized
ones only. Let them fashion the mind with such tales, even more fondly than
they mold the body with their hands; but most of those which are now in use
must be discarded.”[9]
The present fiction writers or poets who do not sing the prescribed tune shall
be banished or denied platform for performance[10].
Plato’s
apprehensions of the danger from, and intolerance to the dissenting ideas from
those thought to be righteous by the all-powerful rulers, have been relevant
through all the historical ages in varied forms, in varying time & space. In
the modern history, beginning from fascist onslaught of poets and activist,
progressive poets and intellectuals[11], via cruel McCarthyism[12] to the contemporary Neo-McCarthyism
of the neo-liberal age, dissenting views are cruelly crushed under the pretext
of anti-nationalism. Most recent demonstration of Platonian apprehension is,
the ruthless suppression of intellectuals with dissenting voices through
extra-constitutional forces of ‘Hindutva’ terror groups and the constitutional
coercive apparatuses of the state, since the inception of the present RSS
supported BJP government[13]. Most recent example of is arrest of five
well-known activist-intellectual on the fabricated charges by the Police[14]. The contradiction of theory and practice is
not the monopoly of capitalism that never does what it says and never says what
it does, but an immanently innate attribute of the all class societies. Plato’s
notion of education as a determinant of meritocracy is full of such
contradictions.
On
the one hand he says that the mind is an active element that is attracted to
its subject on its own. It has eyes and the teacher’s task is not to interfere
in its motion but only to make its object sightable, i.e. to provide exposure
and create conducive ambience for the free realization of its nature by the
mind. On the other hand, proposes a strictly censored course curriculum with
many prescriptions and proscriptions.
As
can be inferred from the above discussion, the theory of ideal state is the logical
corollary the theory of justice and hence by implication, so is the theory of
education, one of the two pillars of the edifice of the ideal state, the other
being, the theory of communism. Justice means everyone acting towards
realization of one’s nature. Education is to determine and thereby make the
individuals to know their nature on the one hand and also train them towards
perfection of it. He draws a comparison between the relationship of the soul
and education with that of growth of a seed into plant with the variety of the
soil and climate[15]. He considers education as the spiritual food
of the soul and hence a lifelong process. Theory and practice both, according
to him, are products of mind, even state is product of mind. That means one of
the aims of education is to train the mind to remain in touch with the theory
and practice both. The inverted priority of matter and mind has been discussed
in the theory of ideas; the state cannot be product of the mind as mind
abstracts the universal ideas from the particular objects not the other way
round. Plato has a teleological (purposive) conception of mind that aims to
comprehend the Idea of Good. But not
everyone can reach to that stage of knowledge, but only few, who are immanently
innate attribute of excellence in the realm of reason.
The
Education system
In
ancient Greece, two systems of education were prevalent -- Athenian and the
Spartan. In Athens most lucrative field was politics. The education was private
and the Sophists were, as is said, the robing universities, who taught for a
fee. Protagoras (BC 490-420) was a prominent Sophist of Socratic era[16]. He was an atheist, a rarity those days in Greece. One of the
false charges against Socrates in the Athenian judicial assembly was corrupting
the youth by spreading atheism. Sophism, in Greek, is equivalent of
wisdom. Sophists taught natural philosophy, mathematics and the subjects
related to, what was considered by them, wisdom and virtue -- from practical
knowledge and prudence in public
affairs to poetic ability and theoretical knowledge; oratory; eloquence;
articulation argumentation, logic etc. In Republic, the sophist,
Thrasymachus, is demonized and ridiculed and is shut up by the end of book I.
That is the realm of education was family centered. Not the state centered. Sparta was a military aristocracy and had a
state controlled education system that imparted mainly military education and
discipline. Plato synthesized the two and added the study of the dialectic at
the highest stage of the scheme.
Plato
divides the education into two parts – elementary and higher. As the “early life is very impressible”[17] and the children are like
wax and can be molded in the shape, one wishes to. Hence the education begins
from the birth itself. “…… also that the
beginning is the most important part of any work, especially in the case of a
young and tender thing; for that is the time at which the character is being
formed and the desired impression is more readily taken”[18]. Hence the education begins
from the time of birth itself.
The
elementary education
The
elementary education is divided into 3 parts:
1.
0-6 years of the age;
2. 6-18 years and
3.
18-20 years.
The
First stage (0-6 years)
The
scheme of education is the same for boys and girls both. Education of women is
a revolutionary contribution of Plato, as it was unheard of not only in Plato’s
time but up to many successive centuries. The first stage of the education of
the children, both boys and the girls, begins from the time of birth and lasts
up to age of 6 years. Plato is quite correct to note that early childhood is
very impressionable age and the children are keen observers; quick imitators
with thinking faculty at the early stage of its growth, and also vulnerable to
indoctrination. Purpose of education at this stage is to provide appropriate
exposure and examples. The teachers must teach by example, same is true for
parents outside Plato’s commune. Convinced with correctness of his views of
good and bad and the ‘real interest’ of the society at large, Plato overtly-covertly
resorts to the indoctrination. In the early stage the children are taught
morality and goodness through lyrics, tales and historical or mythological
heroic examples.
“But
what shall their education be? Is any better than the old-fashioned sort, which
is comprehended under the name of music and gymnastic? Music includes
literature, and literature is of two kinds, true and false. …… . I mean that
children hear stories before they learn gymnastics, and that the stories are
either untrue, or have at most one or two grains of truth in a bushel of
falsehood. Now, and children ought not to learn what they will have to
unlearn when they grow up; we must therefore have a censorship of nursery
tales, banishing some and keeping others. Some of them are very improper, as we
may see in the great instances of Homer and Hesiod, who not only tell lies but
bad lies; stories about Uranus and Saturn[19],
which are immoral as well as false, and which should never be spoken about to
young persons, or indeed at all; or, if at all, then in a mystery, after the
sacrifice, …..”[20]
This
is a very sticky wicket. There is no denying that the early exposures and tales
and lyrics influence the growth of the child’s brain and its direction and
dimensions, which shape their, the child consciousness. The choice of the kind
of exposure in the hands of the rulers is tricky and subject to widely misuse.
Let us give the benefit of doubt to Plato as the ruler of his ideal state is an
all knowledgeable philosopher, who is able to comprehend the idea of good and
would not allow its misuse. But historically, philosopher rulers have been
exceptions; most of them have been the artists of power games, as realistically
claimed by Machiavelli, many centuries later.[21] As quoted above from Marx’s German
Ideology, in each historical epoch, the ruling class ideas influence the
level and form of the social consciousness through particular value
system/systems. These value systems have reference source/sources for the
validation human acts and opinions. In ancient Greece these sources were the
mythological writings of Homer and Hesiod; works of the socially recognized
poets and fictions, as the bible in the medieval, theological era in Europe,
also known as dark ages, or various scriptures like Manusmriti and mythological
scriptures in India in the aftermath of Buddhist revolution and Brahmanical
counter revolutions[22]. Plato questions the
pervading value systems and proposes an alternative value system. In book II, after convincing his assenting
companions, Adeimantus and Glaucon about the need of the tripartite social
structure corresponding to tripartite composition of soul for the establishment
of social and individual justices, Socrates in Republic proceeds to
chalk out the scheme of education for the future guardians. From here to the
next book, he does not say so much about what is to be taught as what is not to
be taught. Why was Plato so against the value system based
on mythological Homeric tales about various gods and divine order? All the
communities create their language; idioms and phrases; Gods and Goddesses
according to their historical needs and divine order in their own image. Evils
of war; incest; patricide; quarrels and wars among the Gods were the
fictionalized reflection existing mundane world. “First of all, I said, there
was that greatest of all lies in high places, which the poet told about Uranus,
and which was a bad lie too,–I mean what Hesiod says that Uranus did, and how
Cronus retaliated on him. The doings of Cronus, and the sufferings which in
turn his son inflicted upon him, even if they were true, ought certainly not to
be lightly told to young and thoughtless persons; if possible, they had better
be buried in silence.”[23]
For
Plato Gods cannot do anything bad but only good. “But surely God and the things
of God are in every way perfect”[24]. Plato insists that they should not learn
things of bad influence, what they have to unlearn, when they grow-up and goes
on to ruthlessly analyze the existing intellectual resources, the poems of
Homer Hesiod and works of other poets and dramatists and their evil influences
on the children in their tender formative stage of life. “Then, although we are
admirers of Homer, we do not admire the lying dream which Zeus sends to
Agamemnon; neither will we praise the verses of Aeschylus in which Thetis says
that Apollo at her nuptials ’Was celebrating in song her fair progeny whose
days were to be long, and to know no sickness. And when he had spoken of my lot
as in all things blessed of heaven he raised a note of triumph and cheered my
soul. And I thought that the word of Phoebus, being divine and full of
prophecy, would not fail. And now he himself who uttered the strain, he who was
present at the banquet, and who said this – he it is who has slain my son.’
These are the kind of sentiments about the gods which will arouse our anger;
and he who utters them shall be refused a chorus; neither shall we allow
teachers to make use of them in the instruction of the young, meaning, as we
do, that our guardians, as far as men can be, should be true worshippers of the
gods and like them”[25].
The
purpose of this long quotation is just to underline that the literature of the
past must be strictly censored and the present writers must write only those
things that are recommended by the state. Those poets and writes not following
the state prescription are to be banished from the ideal state or denied the
platform for performance. The future guardians must not be exposed to those
stories and songs, which may arouse fear of death or erode devotion to Gods or
hatred towards the truth. Therefore, on the one hand Plato, in principles,
maintains that the education’s task is not to instill anything from outside but
to provide only exposure and mind on itself would find its way, that should
mean the exposure to the totality of the reality, on the other hand limits the
exposure to only what he considered to be desirable. The knowledge process
involves not only learning but also unlearning, questioning and unlearning the
irrational social values that one has acquired through socialization
independent of one’s conscious will. But Plato’s educational scheme does not
leave any scope for what one has learnt via a strictly censored and regulated
course-curriculum. The early exposure is quite important in building up of the
mindset and Plato seeks to expose children only to the good aspects of society
and God. But the problem arise when they confront the existing reality that
does not consist of only virtues but vices also, they are not taught how to
deal with them. But like his theory of ideal state, the theory of education,
it’s one of the pillars, is also a theoretical construct to eliminate the vices
in coordination of its other pillar, the theory of communism.
The
second stage (6-18 years)
In
the first stage of the education the emphasis is to develop the appropriate
orientation through music that develops and refines the soul. In the second
stage the gymnastic is added to the music for the simultaneous development of
body also along with the soul.
The
Music
As
quoted above, the music includes literature; poetry; songs; dance and
instrumental music. The censorship of music that includes literature continues
in the second stage also. At this stage the scope of the music takes a higher
form by including selected harmonies and rhythms. “Next in order to harmonies,
rhythms will naturally follow, and they should be subject to the same rules,
for we ought not to seek out complex systems of meter, or meters of every kind,
but rather to discover what rhythms are the expressions of a courageous and
harmonious life; and when we have found them, we shall adapt the foot and the
melody to words having a like spirit, not the words to the foot and melody”[26]. Further that “the musical training is a more potent instrument
than any other, because rhythm and harmony find their way into 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; and also because he who has received this true education of the
inner being will most shrewdly perceive omissions or faults in art and nature,
and with a true taste, while he praises and rejoices over and receives into his
soul the good, and becomes noble and good, he will justly blame and hate the
bad, now in the days of his youth, even before he is able to know the reason
why; and when reason comes he will recognize and salute the friend with whom
his education has made him long familiar”[27]. This means the censorship
of literature is similarly applied to the harmonics and rhythms of the
instrumental music. Plato firmly believes in the influence of the music in the
character building, though it does not impart any scientific knowledge but
promotes the thinking in the right direction. The wildness of passions is
calmed down by the rhythms and the harmonies and fills the minds of the youth
with a sense of conviction to justice. “When the modes of the music change, the
fundamental laws of the state always change with them”.[28] It fills in the sense of
discipline and devotion to God and protects the soul from evil influences. It
shall not be inappropriate to conclude this section with yet another quotation.
“And
therefore …….. musical training is a
more potent instrument than any other, because rhythm and harmony find their
way into 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; and also because he who has received
this true education of the inner being will most shrewdly perceive omissions or
faults in art and nature, and with a true taste, while he praises and rejoices
over and receives into his soul the good, and becomes noble and good, he will
justly blame and hate the bad, now in the days of his youth, even before he is
able to know the reason why; and when reason comes he will recognize and salute
the friend with whom his education has made him long familiar.”
The
Gymnastics
Gymnastics
is about health care – maintenance of healthy body. It includes prescription of
simple diet and cure of the body. He proscribes spicy and heavy food. He is
against cures of illness as in his opinion death is preferable over living with
illness. In his ideal state there is no space for physicians, who instead of
curing increase the illness like non-conforming poets and artists they too are
banished[29]. The soul in the weak and ill body, according
to him, cannot realize its nature. He holds the indulgence and indolence are
the basic causes of illness. The physical trainings and exercises keep the body
so fit that illness keeps away from it. The exercises not only keep the body
fit but also help in building the moral character, as its final goal. It makes
the youth temperate; courageous and disciplined. It is basically aimed at
enabling the youth for military duties.
It
is to be noted that though the reasoning is the philosophical basis of Plato’s
political theory, there is hint that apart from censored music and gymnastics,
nothing is taught in which the students have scope for application of reasoning
abilities. The main aim seems to induct in the students the sense of discipline
and obedience to the state that is to the directions of the philosopher, whose
authority knows no limits of any law.
The
third stage (18-20)
Last
two years of the elementary education are devoted to military training. This
phase is very important as music nurtures and nourishes the soul and gymnastic
the body. In the choice of rhythms, as quoted above, Plato prefers warlike
rhythms. Through appropriate music and
drills; sports; exercises as part of gymnastics, the elementary education
prepares the youth into a disciplined soldier, the courageous watch dog knowing
well on whom to be fierce or friendly. The dogs depend for knowing this on
their instincts, the soldiers by training. Trainings of personnel of security forces
of the states through the ages, not perfectly, but approximately fit into
Platonian framework of the elementary education.
After
the 20 years education in music and gymnastics, there is a first great
elimination test, those who clear it are admitted to higher education and the
rest take up the responsibility of warriors as disciplined soldiers.
The
higher education
There
are three stages in higher education also.
1. The
scientific education (20-30)
2. Education
in dialectic (30-35)
3. Practical
in dialectics (35-40)
The
first stage (20-30 years)In this stage the students are given scientific
education, which Plato, in his theory of knowledge diagram marks as the realm
of understanding. After 20 years of elementary education in music and physical
training, the successful candidates are introduced to the subjects like
mathematics (arithmetic); geometry; astronomy; astrology and harmonics. The
scientific education orients the youth towards the truth. Emphasis is on
mathematics and not wrongly as it trains our mind for clear thinking; reasoning;
logic and analysis. In underlining the importance of various subjects, Plato
emphasizes their utility in war formations and strategies. There is no scope to
go into details of his treatment of various disciplines. In nutshell there are
two major advantages of te scientific education, according to Plato, firstly it
orients towards reasoning and secondly it introduces the soul to the principles
and ideas essential for the comprehension of the final knowledge, the knowledge
of the Idea of Good. At the end of the 10 years of the scientific education, there
is the second great elimination test. Those who clear this final test are
recommended for further higher education in dialectics and those who fail are
selected for subordinate administrative and military offices. As mentioned
earlier, Plato does not consider the knowledge acquired from the scientific
education as real knowledge but only understanding.
Second stage (30-35)
The students selected for higher education
are taught dialectics – the philosophical journey into the invisible,
intellible world of ideas -- for the next five years. This has been briefly
discussed in section of the theory of ideas. The training in the dialectics
enables them to comprehend the idea of the good.
Third stage (35-50 years)
After 5 years of training in dialectics, the
students become would be only potential philosopher kings and queens, that the
become after testing their philosophical theories into practice by a 15 year
long apprentice by working on higher administrative and military
positions. Those, who prove their worth
in handling the tough tasks working on these positions, become philosopher
kings/queens, at the age of 50. Thus as a result of 50 years long strenuous
education results into creation of the philosopher, who his a high quality
scientist and philosopher. After the completion of education, the philosopher
kings/queens devote themselves to the contemplation of the truth and the
wellbeing of the people and guide them to just ways of the life.
Women’s Education
Though it has already mentioned in the beginning
itself that education is meant for boys and girls both, yet it deserves
additional treatment as the society was a rigidly patriarchal, and women were
confined to only domestic chorus. They were not even citizens. In England,
women got full citizenship rights only in 1929 after a prolonged
feminist struggle and scholarship, beginning with Mary Wollstonecraft, in the
last quarter 18th century[30]. Allowing women to uniform
and equal upbringing and education with men was an innovative, revolutionary
idea. His student Aristotle was so upset that questions Plato’s wisdom of
giving away the enslavement of women with one stroke of pen, which has been a
historic achievement of mankind. In book V of Republic, Socrates
meticulously argues with Galucon and Adeimantus the equal potentials in women
if given same upbringing and education as men. Confining the women into
domestic chorus means deprivation of society of the utility of half of its
intellectual resources. Let me conclude this discussion with a long quotation
from dialogues between Socrates and Glaucon.
“Then, if women are to have the same duties
as men, they must have the same nurture and education?
Yes.
The education which was assigned to the men
was music and gymnastic.
Yes.
Then women must be taught music and gymnastic
and also the art of war, which they must practice like the men?
That
is the inference, I suppose.
I should rather expect, I said, that several
of our proposals, if they are carried out, being unusual, may appear
ridiculous. No doubt of it. Yes, and the most ridiculous thing of all will be
the sight of women naked in the palaestra, exercising with the men, especially
when they are no longer young; they certainly will not be a vision of beauty,
any more than the enthusiastic old men who in spite of wrinkles and ugliness
continue to frequent the gymnasia.
Yes, indeed, he said: according to present
notions the proposal would be thought ridiculous. But then, I said, as we have
determined to speak our minds, we must not fear the jests of the wits which
will be directed against this sort of innovation; how they will talk of women’s
attainments both in music and gymnastic, and above all about their wearing armor
and riding upon horseback!”
Plato argues that once people see the results
of women’s performances in public offices or in the field of war, they shall
begin appreciating it instead of ridicules.
Concluding Remarks
The educational scheme is only for the ruling
classes, not for children of the majority of economic producers. Though, Plato
theoretically constructs the ideal state by extending the principles of the
division of labor and exchange in the egalitarian First City, the city
of various kinds of producers, he
excludes them from the political community, to be ruled by educated
philosophers with the help of trained, armed auxiliaries. Plato’s aristocratic education,
not totally but largely resembles the Brahmanical, Gurukul, education system in
the same way as the structure of his ideal education largely resembles the
Varnashram social system. The Brahmanical education was reserved for only the
ruling classes, the intellectuals (Brahmins) and the warriors (Kshatriyas), not
accessible to the classes of economic producers (Vishyas) and the servant
classes (Shudra). The education of warrior classes generally focused on
military education and politics (Dandniti). The higher education that is the
knowledge of scriptures was reserved for the intellectuals, the Brahmins. The
RSS’s notion of education imparted in the Shishumandir and Shakha bears
noticeable influence of Plato’s education system. Plato theoretically picks up
children at the time of the birth and subjects them to selected tales and
lyrics. RSS picks them up little later and inducts them Shishu ( child) Swamsevak
and trains them further as Bal (boy) Swamsevak; kishor (Adolscent) and Tarun (young
Swamsevak) Swamsevak and then graduation to full-fledged Swayamsevak after
attending two camps ITC and OTC (Officers Training Camp). Like Plato it too emphasizes,
in belief in the God, discipline and obedience along with indoctrination in selected
way of thinking. There is no scope here of comparison between Platonic and RSS
education systems, which is subject matter of separate discussion. But unlike
Plato, it does not allow women in its scheme. From the above discussion we can
conclude that Plato’s education system is an aristocratic system aimed at
maintaining the strict class division of the rulers and the ruled and training
the philosophers to rule over the majority of the producers.
17.09.2018
[1]
K Marx &F Engels, German
Ideology, K Marx & F Engels, Collected Works, (CW, hence forth)
Vol. 5, Progress, Moscow, 1978 pp. 59-62
[3]
A note
[4]
Quoted in William Ebenstein, The Great Political Thinkers, p.
[6]
http://ishmishra.blogspot.com/2015/09/the-higher-education.html
[7]
http://ishmishra.blogspot.com/2016/05/blog-post_22.html
[8]
Republic, op.cit. pp. 228-30
[9]
Ibid, p. 231
[10]
Ibid p. 234
[11]
A note on Gramsci’s incarceration judgment
[12]
A note and http://ishmishra.blogspot.com/2012/07/the-specter-of-naxalism-neo-mccarthyism.html
[13]
A note and ईश मिश्र, राष्ट्र-राज्य
और राष्ट्रवाद, समयांतर, जनवरी, 2018, also in http://ishmishra.blogspot.com/2017/12/blog-post_24.html
[14]
A note
[16]
Ish Mishra, https://countercurrents.org/2017/09/17/protagoras-490-420-bc/
[17]
Republic, op.cit. p. 230
[18]
Ibid
[19]
Two of the multitude of the Gods (a note )
[20]
Republic, op.cit. (emphasis added)
[22]
Ambedkar, Gita (reference)
[24]
Ibid, p. 235
[25]
Ibid p. 254
[27]
Ibid p. 255
[28]
Ibid p.256
[29]
Ibid p. 262
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