Creating a Person with Perfect Body and Mind

Ideal Standards of Education and Personal Growth in Plato’s Republic

Aug 3, 2009 Arash Farzaneh

For Plato education was of paramount importance and he clearly sketched out the various stages of an excellent preparation for the members of the Republic.

Plato's Republic offers a rather detailed plan and curriculum for the education and development of its members, especially for its elite - the philosophers-kings. It encompasses over five decades of knowledge and learning for the chosen and selected individuals.

Mathematics and the First Twenty Years of Education and Knowledge

According to Plato, education should start very early on and should include mathematics, namely arithmetic and geometry, both part of a field that Plato himself had great admiration for.

In fact, mathematics alongside all the general sciences, including physical education called “gymnastics” were intended to prepare the student for the later art of dialectic, a major trademark of philosophy.

The Method of Teaching - Force and Discipline versus Play and Intrinsic Self-Motivation

Plato was aware that children could not be treated as adults and that the best results came from a learning that was brought about voluntarily rather than by force. Learning should not be regarded as obligation and the student was not simply a slave who was supposed to absorb all knowledge, but an active and willing participant in his or her education.

In this case, according to Plato, there is a substantial difference between gymnastics, which includes physical efforts, and the sciences, which requires mental effort and concentration. Although in the previous the body would benefit merely through the use of exercise, regardless of whether imposed upon or not, when it comes to mental efforts, learning that is forced would not be of duration and students for lack of interest and attention would not benefit from their studies.

For Plato, it was important not to use any violence when teaching children; through playing children should be able to explore their own fields of interest. This would facilitate the discovery of their natural talents and dispositions, which could then be expanded and improved upon.

Education After the Age of 30 and the Philosopher Kings

After the first twenty years, Plato believed that the students who have proven themselves should be given the opportunity to study the sciences on a more profound level, which would ideally lead to knowledge of being, i.e. the field of philosophy.

At the age of 30, those who have excelled in the sciences and in warfare and who understand “truth” through the use of pure logic and rational thought - as opposed to the use of the eyes or any other senses - these gifted people could then elevate themselves to the realm of pure being.

This state of knowledge would then be tested on the battlefield for the next twenty years so that when they turn fifty they would have wide and extensive knowledge mixed with practical experience. This combination would make them most suitable for the difficult and challenging office of "philosopher kings," those who are at the top and control and command the ideal Republic proposed by Plato.

As can be seen, not everyone will be able to make it to the highest post of Plato’s Republic; it is an elitist point of view, where education starts early, is constantly observed and monitored and reaches its climax at a ripe and mature age after various decades of theoretical knowledge and practical experience.