1' PLATO AND SKINNER: EDUCATION AS A MEANS TO ORDER SOCIETY

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1. PLATO AND SKINNER EDUCATION AS A MEANS TO
ORDER SOCIETY

• PLATO AND THE IDEAL POLIS
• Hello to Wide Bay from Toowoomba

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PART ONE EDUCATION AND SOCIETY

• Education and society in 5th century Athens and
  Sparta . Three questions
• 1. To what extent does the nature of the society
  influence education?
• 2. Why did Plato rejected the Athenian democratic
  model?
• 3. Why did Plato believe education would a)
  create and b) order his ideal society?

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Athens in the fifth century BC

• The Athenian ideal
• - to be a good citizen of the polis
• - it was citizens duty was to help the polis
• belonging to the polis was a way of life
• a common sharing of cultural ideas
• the polis formed your mind and character
• A good citizen makes a good polis and a good
  polis makes and good citizen

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The Education System in Athens

• Reflected the idea that a man had to be a fully
  developed citizen to be an effective member of
  the polis
• Mens sana in corpore sana or a healthy mind in a
  healthy body
• This also reflects the educational ideal
• In Athens, only adult free males were citizens

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Schools in Athens

• There were no state schools - only private
• Boys could go to three different types of schools
  and finished with Ephebic training
• Plato did not approve of this as it advantaged
  the wealthy
• There were some state regulations including
  opening and closing and what was called the
  Paidagogos

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1. Elementary Schools

• Palaistra or wrestling school run by a
  Paidotribes
• Music or Lyres school run by a Citharistes
• Letters school run by a Grammatistes

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2. Higher Education

• Isocrates school
• Platos Academy
• The Gymnasium
• The Sophists

• They were professional teachers of wisdom .
  They specialised in rhetoric. Plato critcised
  Protagoras, who, like the others, believed you
  could teach wisdom if the price were right!!

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Why was education important in in Athens?

• A good citizen of the polis needed to be literate
  to
• Participate in the participatory democracy
• To vote in the Assembly

• To understand ostracism
• To administer written laws
• To serve on juries
• To attend plays and read Homer
• To visit Egypt and leave graffiti

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• REMEMBER When Aristotle said that man is a
  political animal", he didn't refer to handing out
  How to Vote Cards for the Alexander the Great
  Party! He literally meant that man was a person
  who lived in a polis and the polis was the only
  meaningful framework within which he could fully
  develop spiritual, moral and intellectual
  capacities.

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Conclusions to Athens Section

• Look at the Athenians and decide whether the type
  of society in operation at the time influenced
  the type of education available.
• To help you decide, the short extract Pericles
  Funeral Oration sums up the society in Athens in
  431BC.
• Now compare Athens with Sparta!

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Education at Sparta

• Sparta was a polis in Greece but there are
  several reasons why there are major political,
  social and cultural differences between it and
  Athens - as your Reading points out.
• These differences are reflected in the Spartan
  education system, if you can call it
  Education??? 

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Purpose of Spartan education?

• Purpose To foster manly virtues of courage,
  toughness, physical perfection, fighting skills
  and total obedience for the common good.
• To be in constant readiness for war

• To ensure rigorous physical and military
  training, denial of the luxuries of life, harsh
  discipline, isolation from the family, and
  impose a system of sharing with all citizens

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Any Problems?

• The development of the mind neglected
• An unbalanced system
• Self-restraint not taught
• Children brutalised

• Spartans not allowed to be creative
• Instilled a morbid fear of change
• Unjust policies allowed to exist
• Static religious, political and societal norms

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To conclude Part 1..

• Sparta - Education used to order society.
• Resulted in a static, rigid, conservative and
  unchanging society
• Strict discipline and harsh treatment for all
  children

• Athens- education promoted growth and future
  development
• Athens was a forward looking, reasonably tolerant
  society, open to new ideas
• Ideas on child -rearing and education linked

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PART 2

• Plato and the Ideal Polis
• How he intended to use education to order
  society and to maintain this order

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1. Socrates and his Connexion with Plato

• Socrates was born in c.469 BC and dies 399 BC
• - The Socratic method is used in the Republic
  dialectic
• Socrates was condemned to death by the Athenian
  democracy on false charges

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2. Who was Plato?

• Plato was born 429/8 BC and died 347BC
• He had early visions of a better polis
• He was an aristocrat and had an ambition to be a
  great statesman
• He became disillusioned with Athens due to
  Sophists, politicians, the people, and the
  Peloponnesian War 431-404BC

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3. Why did he want an ideal polis?

• Death of Socrates saw the end of his political
  ambitions
• Plato was filled with revulsion with politics and
  governments
• He traveled widely and experimented with turning
  politicians into philosophers
• Returned to Athens and founded the Academy
• Wrote the Republic aged 40.

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4. Justice as the basis

• Plato was concerned with justice
• Plato believed men could no longer afford to be
  individuals and have freedom
• He admired aspects of Sparta
• He believed just rulers, not amateurs, needed to
  rule the polis to achieve justice
• Believed rulers must be philosopher-rulers

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5. Structure of the Ideal Polis

• The ideal polis would be divided into 3 parts as
  the soul was divided into 3 parts
• This tripartite soul was composed of 3 sections
  called Reason, Spirit and Appetite
• Plato used the Metaphor of the 3 Metals
• -philosopher rulers have reason
• -auxiliaries soldiers have silver and
• -workers/farmers have bronze in their souls

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6. The Education System would

• educate citizens to be good citizens
• educate an elite group to rule a meritocracy
• find those with real knowledge who saw the
  Forms
• be based on Platos Theory of Forms

• AND Plato believed in pure Forms such as beauty
  and truth. The highest Form was the Form of the
  Good
• Plato wanted to educate rulers to see the Form
  of the Good
• Geometry was the key to the Forms

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7. KNOWLEDGE

• Knowledge was not poured in but drawn out
• The River of Lethe or forgetfulness made people
  forget previous knowledge
• Education needed to draw out a remembrance of the
  Forms from a past life
• And Geometry will help to do this

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8. The Stages of Education

• 6-18 General Education
• 18-20 Military Training
• 20-30 Advanced Scientific Education
• 30-35 Dialectic
• 35-50 Practical Training needed to become
  Philosopher-Ruler.

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To Conclude Part 2THE CAVE

• The Cave explains how Philosopher-Rulers escape
  from the world of the senses to the world of the
  mind
• End of Part 2