Education, history of philosophy of

2. Plato and Aristotle

The adequacy of the Socratic elenchus was evidently one of Plato’s concerns in the Meno, for the work presents us with a Socratic interlocutor who is purged of misplaced confidence and ready to join Socrates in a search for the nature of virtue, but asking how the search is to go forward without the benefit of any knowledge of the object of the search. This prompts the introduction of Plato’s theory that all learning is recollection, and a demonstration of an elenchus arriving, without recourse to prior knowledge, at the discovery of a geometrical fact. The theory of recollection underwrites the hope that a search will yield truth, by suggesting that one can count on having enough true beliefs to drive out the false, as one’s beliefs become more coherent under questioning. Plato implies that one ascends from there to knowledge as one reasons through the relationships among all the truths in the relevant domain and can thereby understand and provide an explanatory account of any one of them.

In the Republic, Plato envisages the inculcation of self-restraint through a comprehensive system of compulsory education for each social class, and develops an elaborate defence of the Socratic thesis that justice is a virtue indispensable for a happy life. Plato was evidently concerned that the education of his time, which was dominated by the study of Homer, was inconsistent with the inculcation of these virtues, and regarded an education which would eliminate unnecessary desires for contested goods as the one way to eliminate wars of conquest and the political instability so prevalent in Greek life. He envisages a craft training for members of the labouring class, which will free them from the dominance of desires for unnecessary consumption and prepare them for a happy life of efficient money making. Members of the ‘guardian’ class are to be given a communal upbringing which will eliminate conflict arising from clan loyalties, and a primary education in music, athletics and stories which will enable them to be happy in their pursuit of honour by making them courageous and gentle towards each other and those they protect. The philosopher-kings must know what is good for the city, and Plato proposes an education which will not only elevate their minds through the study of abstract sciences to dialectic and apprehension of the transcendent ‘Form’ of goodness, but also provide many years of experience in the affairs of the city.

Plato’s Laws describes a city which resembles that of the Republic in aiming at the virtue and happiness of all citizens, but is quite unlike it in being a constitutional rule of law grounded in reason and informed consent. The insistence on consent, and an unwavering commitment to the idea that every institution, including legislation and its enforcement, is educative, leads to the proposal that all laws be prefaced with ‘preludes’ that are both moving and explanatory, and that these ‘preludes’ should serve as models for the literary substance of state-operated day schools. Two noteworthy aspects of the theory of learning and instruction at work in the Laws are the prominent role assigned to guided practice, and its rich use of the model of a good doctor who communes with and earns the trust and cooperation of a patient before prescribing a remedy. It shares with the Republic the view that rational self-control and the ability to perceive what is good can only develop under the influence of good upbringing and education.

Aristotle’s De Partibus Animalium (On the Parts of Animals) opens with a characterization of a complete education as one which enables a person to form reasonable judgments of the goodness or badness of reasoning in all branches of knowledge. This requires an understanding of the manner and canons of investigation in the various branches of knowledge, and it is fair to say that Aristotle dedicated himself not only to the discovery and elaboration of those canons of investigation, but also to making them known through his lectures and the wide-ranging scientific investigations of his ‘school’, the Lyceum.

Of the works of Aristotle that have survived, it is the Politics and Nicomachean Ethics, the works of ‘political science’ intended as guides to political practice, that are most revealing of his educational philosophy. They suggest that he thought a higher education for political phronēsis should provide leaders and their advisors with systematic knowledge of how to pursue the proper aim of the state (namely, the best kind of life for all its citizens), and a knowledge of the causes of dissolution of states which would provide corrupt leaders with the motivation to pursue reforms. Plato had argued that unjust regimes tend to be short-lived, and Aristotle offered his own comparative study of 158 constitutional histories as confirmation.

Aristotle shared Plato’s view that justice and human wellbeing require systematic educational efforts to make citizens virtuous and to create social unity, but his accounts of education for good character and unity are interestingly different. His view of aretēis that what is essential to it, beyond being disposed to desire the right ends and take pleasure in their attainment, is judging and acting from a well-rounded grasp of the morally important particulars of the situations one faces. The beginnings of aretē must be established through exposure to good models and habitual obedience to good law, but its refinement requires practice guided by coaching and correction. This progress in perception, responsiveness and judgment reaches its highest development through conversation with trusted and exemplary companions who can best enable one to know oneself.

Aristotle was critical of the communism of the Republic, and followed the Plato of the Laws in proposing the establishment of state-sponsored day schools. He seems to have regarded common schooling, and its proposed education for virtue, as the natural culmination of reforms by which a city can be unified through the cultivation of goodwill, common non-competitive aspirations, and friendships which bridge the divides between different social classes.