Plato's Ideas on Education
Plato
Brain
Proffitt (2004) states that Plato is renowned as Father of Western Philosophy.
The legendary figure was born in 427 B.C.E. in noble family of Athens, the
third child of Ariston and Perictone. Some biographers believe that Plato was
the descendent of the last king of Athens, named Codrus. Plato belonged to a
politically strong and active family in the Athenian society. These political influences
theatrically affect later years of Plato’s life. He received the best education
that his family could afford. Plato was much skilled in mental as well as
physical arts. Because of his family’s strong political background, Plato was also
trained for career in politics and leadership.
Plato’s family was affluent in Athens but was not pleased by the leadership
of nobles of that time. He learned the way other upper-class Athenian men
learned. He closely followed the teachings of
pre-Socratic philosophers specially Cratylus, Pythagoras and Parmenides. Hence
Plato was well acquainted with the knowledge of the universe along with the
concepts of metaphysics and epistemology (the study of nature of knowledge). He
met Socrates, a great philosopher in one of the family functions and became his
student. Aristotle who was the student of Plato wrote that he was also a poet
till the age of 20 but he decided to burn all his poems and diverted his thoughtfulness
to philosophy. His acquaintance with Socrates altered his course of life.
Socrates’s methods and arguments influenced the minds of the youth of Athens
including Plato, and he became one of the close associate of Socrates.
Hummel
(1999) states that the works of Plato are still unique and valued. He had
covered a variety of subjects such as responsibility, obligation, justice,
courage, love, beauty, science, nature, rhetoric, nature of human kind, wisdom,
kingship and law in his works. One of his most famous works is “The republic”.
Blackburn (2006) states that “The republic” was written around 375 B.C.E , when
Plato was in his early fifties. This renowned book is conventionally divided
into ten books. First book gives the introduction whereas tenth book serves as
conclusion of the whole book. From books II to IX the main discussion which
runs, is of morality and politics. Within this book there is a separate part
for the nature of reality (epistemology and metaphysics) and theory of
knowledge which runs from Book V to VII. These central books contain most of
the metaphysical concepts and fundamental doctrines. The allegory of cave is one of the most
famous allegory and the myth which lies in Book VII.
Blackburn
(2006) states that Plato’s masterpiece “The Republic” uses the mouthpiece of
Socrates and made Socrates leading character in his dialogue which is the
evidence for the height of inspiration Plato derived from Socrates. Dillon
(2004) states that book VII of Plato’s republic is well known for the two main
themes that includes absolute defense of justice and effective defense of
philosophical education. Plato has discussed visions of education i.e. for a
warrior and a philosophers’ king.
Plato
presents the Allegory of cave in book VII of “The republic” in which he states
that Plato describes the scene of cave by telling the parable of human beings are
chained in an underground cave, which has a mouth open towards the light and
reaching all along the cave. People who are confiscated here are living here
from their childhood, and their necks are chained in a way that they cannot
move themselves and they can only see the shadows which are in front of their
eyes on the wall and they consider it as reality. Above and behind them a fire
is blazing at a distance, and between the fire and the prisoners there is a
raised way; from which the puppeteers pass by, and prisoners can only see the
shadows of these puppets and can hear their own voices and the echoes of the
puppeteers passing by. The prisoners talk with one another only for giving the
names to the puppets or guessing which shadow will be next. People who are able
to guess the right puppet will be considered the most intelligent among them.
If any of the prisoners is set free, he commences the journey upwards and will have
to suffer severe pains to turn his neck round or standing on his feet, and finally
he sees the light of fire in the cave. When he moves out of the cave he won’t
be able to see all the realities at once. He will take time to get familiarize
with the sight of upper world. First he will see the shadows best, next the
reflections of men and other objects in water, and then the objects themselves
then he will gaze upon the light of star and moon in the night and then he will
be able to see the sun. , when he sees the sun, his eyes are perplexed. He
would be stunned and baffled by seeing the reality. And last of all he will be
able to see himself and will contemplate his own self. And then he will get to
know the real designer of this whole world. When he knows this reality, he
would pity on his fellow prisoners and will consider all that honour of
guessing the shadow that is coming next, as the false honour. And when he will
return to the cave he will try to explain that reality to the dwellers of the
cave and they would consider that his eyes is weakened because he went to the
upper world and consider him insane. The shadows which were seen by the men in
cave were not absolute reality but the shadows of the reality. Whatever we see
in this real world is actually the imperfect copy of the perfect and absolute
reality. Roochnik(2003) is of the view that the act of getting imprisoned from
the cave and go for a journey upwards portrays that education leads to the
journey of soul to intelligible place. The man who is set free is going upward
and suffers sharp pains, which denotes the severe distress which a person faces
when he selects the way of truth, as the way of truth and good is most
difficult one. When the person comes out of the darkness which is only possible
through good education, he is exposed to truth or he has selected the way of
truth, then he will understand that this truth is the cause of every good
happening in the world. Plato has also explained through this allegory that
education is not a forceful activity to put sight into the blind eyes, but it
refers to the process of shifting the sight of a person so that glimpse of
truth is visible.
Presenting
this cave allegory Plato is of the view that the new education should not chain
the people in such a way that they are unable to see the reality, but the
education should help men in seeing the reality or the ultimate truth. Plato
has also laid the emphasis on the early childhood education and had explained
that slight carelessness in early childhood education can result in drastic and
rigorous minds. He focuses on the early childhood tales that are not censored
and are sometimes based on terror and enmity. Dillon (2004) states, Plato is of
the view that a young child cannot
distinguish between good or bad , so tales taught in the early childhood years
should be strictly censored , as the messages that these tales give, have long
lasting impacts in children’s mind. The souls of children can be carved by the
tales in a good or bad manner. According
to Plato, these tales must highlight the virtues of courage, liberality, moderation,
magnificence, justice, obedience to elders, restraint in drinking, sex, love
for money etc. which will result in youth who act upon these virtues and make
their decisions considering these virtues. This will benefit individuals and
society.
Plato
has also given divided line theory which supports this cave allegory. Plato has
divided the process acquisition of true knowledge in four stages. First stage
or the lowest stage is based on imaginations and inferences because the
knowledge is based on assumptions or suppositions which are termed as shadows of
puppets in the cave allegory. Second stage is based on beliefs. In this stage,
knowledge is constructed on the basis of images of real objects. Third stage in
this hierarchy is the stage of scientific knowledge. Knowledge is tested by experimenting,
providing evidences and equating it mathematically. Last and the highest stage
of acquisition of knowledge is reasoning, and the knowledge at this stage is
called dialectics. This stage balances all the physical and metaphysical
knowledge in a rationale manner and person contemplate him and knows the
reality. This reality is represented by sight of the sun in allegory or
contemplating the creator of the whole visible world.
In
“The republic” Plato states that there were two sections in former scheme of
education i.e. Gymnastic which refers to growth and decay of body and music
which will make the souls rhythmical and harmonious. Plato further focuses that
music doesn’t give them knowledge about science and the truth which had harmony
in them, and therefore people have no instinct to search for truth .In the
republic there is a debate either music and gymnastic should be the part of
education or not, as if they are, then they don’t inculcate the instinct to
search for truth and if they are excluded then the art will be excluded from
the education. Plato has given the solution for this conflict that those
subjects should be included in education that are common in all arts and
sciences and all the intelligences use them in common. Plato is presenting
arithmetic as a subject as this is common in all the universal subjects. He
emphasizes on arithmetic by saying that it is very necessary for every man,
irrespective that he is to be a warrior or a king; every men should have
knowledge of arithmetic. Dillon (2004) states that Plato has given importance
to arithmetic not because it’s use in practical matters but also because of its
abstractness which results in usage of intellect and arose questions about its
existence. Studying the complex concepts, questioning about them, searching for
evidences and providing the answers can lead to the search of ultimate reality
and truth. Plato also laid emphasis that astronomy should also be the subject
in education as the observation of seasons and years is very essential for all
to study, either he be farmer, sailor, or related to any other occupations .Plato
had entitled astronomy and music as sister sciences, as eyes can see the stars
and ears can hear the melody . So according to Plato both should be studied. Plato
also emphasized on geometry a lot. Harris (1981) states that, Plato has taken geometry
as the model for all reasoning. The height of inspiration which Plato derived
from geometry is, it was written on the door of his academy that “Let no one
without geometry enter here”. Plato hoped that geometry would lead people to
reach the stage of dialectal reasoning and will direct people to the ultimate
truth. He gave an example to connect the geometry with dialectical reasoning as
one tangent pass through the circle at only one of the infinite point that will
make people contemplate the absolute. He is of the view that main aim of education
is to achieve the perfection or know the ultimate truth.
Dillon
(2004) states that Plato has presented a view in “The Republic” that early education
should not be given forcibly to the people but it should be more of play and
enjoyment, thus a child must enjoy his early years of education and learn from
that enjoyment. When pupils reach age of
twenty they will be able to find the relation between the subjects studied. Those who are able to cross this stage and
perform their duty well will be selected for the dialectics where they will
explore the truth. Plato in republic, book VII further describes dialectic as a
person who starts discovery of absolute by light of reason only. This is the
stage where senses don’t help in exploring and his discovery continues till he
reaches to the ultimate reality. Socrates also recognizes the danger of the
full truth and emphasizes that students must not be allowed to have a dialogue
with the dialectics on ultimate truth at an early age because they might
contradict the rules and laws of the state instead of following them. And
therefore is of the view that dialectic can reveal the ultimate truth or
reality to those only who have studied previous sciences and have crossed the
age of youth. So this process of
discovering the truth is step by step. At the age of 35 he must be sent down to
the cave in the darkness to experience the people out there and spent time in
explaining them his view. After fifteen years of experience of this service,
finally at the age of 50 if candidate proves that he is commendable in all
respects and then he ought to become the ruler of the state and the true
guardian. There are many people who when reach the age of fifty and are
enlighten with the reality, don’t want to accept power and responsibility and
they will move far to the islands but Plato wants them to work for the state as
they are the people who owe to the society for their education and they should
return that by dwelling in the society and serving the society to their best
efforts.
Jayapalan
(2002) states that nothing much is known about the later years of Plato but he
must have gone through the process of lecturing at the academy , since Aristotle
entered the Academy in 367 B.C., was one of his students and these years he
must have been busy in composing political philosophy and laws. The great
philosopher died in 347 B.C.
References:
Blackburn,
S. (2006). Plato’s republic: a biography.
Available from http://books.google.com/books?id=zRU8A9SIdt4C&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
Harris,
C.L. (1981). Evolution, genesis and revelations:
with readings from Empedocles to Wilson. Available from http://books.google.com.pk/books?id=VtSC_J6g5W8C&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
Jayapalan,
N. (2002). Comprehensive study of Plato. Available from http://books.google.com/books?id=ryfgSYlmoOQC&printsec=frontcover&dq=jayapalan%282002%29&hl=en&ei=q87ZTvOzBMi3rAeEyr37DQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CD0Q6AEwAw#v=onepage&q&f=false
Proffitt,
B. (2004). Plato within your grasp. Available from http://books.google.com.pk/books?id=ryfgSYlmoOQC&pg=PA1&dq=plato+-+life&hl=en&ei=AgXVTvj3EcXprQe00K2FDg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCwQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=plato%20-%20life&f=false
Roochnik,
D. (2003). Beautiful City: The
Dialectical Character of Plato's "Republic". Available from http://books.google.com/books?id=ZCZhxmlEzGMC&pg=PA28&dq=robinson+%281971%29+plato&hl=en&ei=YM_ZTqDvLsfNrQep95mBDg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&sqi=2&ved=0CDYQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=cave&f=false
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