With the ever-present danger of tyranny accompanying military rule, efforts must be made to curb the guardians' natural tendency to lord over the citizens. More land is needed to hold the burgeoning population and its possessions and a specialized military is needed to carry out conquests and guard the city from its neighbors. As soon as Socrates allows fineries, however, the city quickly becomes rife with potential trouble. Caught up in the fun of imagining the ideal city, Glaucon cannot fathom that it would be as austere as Socrates suggests and desires that it be more luxurious. The most explicit account of education arises after Glaucon questions the moderate and plain lifestyle required in Socrates' just city "of speech" (369a). After gaining an understanding of the two accounts, the paper will analyze them in relation to Socrates' own pedagogical method, and thereby unveil the ideals of Socratic education. This paper will first examine the dialogue's two explicit accounts of education, addressing both their similarities and differences. In accordance with the progressive, playful, philosophical education suggested by the cave analogy and the philosopher-kings' education, Socrates uses numerous varying and often conflicting ideas and images (among which is the first account of education) to gradually guide his pupils toward a personal realization of knowledge and philosophy. The first account of education, however, is not included in the dialogue without purpose. ![]() ![]() Socrates' pedagogical approach with the interlocutors corresponds closely with his vision of the education of the philosopher-kings-an overlap which suggests that the allegory of the cave is representative of true Socratic education. While the dramatic context of the dialogue makes facets of the Republic difficult to grasp, in the case of education, it also provides the key to locating and understanding Socrates' true vision of education. Not only does Socrates (Plato's mouthpiece in the dialogue) posit two differing visions of education (the first is the education of the warrior guardians and the second is the philosopher-kings' education), but he also provides a more subtle account of education through the pedagogical method he uses with Glaucon and Adeimantus. Plato's beliefs on education, however, are difficult to discern because of the intricacies of the dialogue. But what remains are Plato’s words on the page, recording those other words Socrates said, preserving that wit and that wisdom across the aeons for us to admire, to enjoy, and to love.įor Plato, this is the ultimate, the highest form of love, the only love that is truly eternal.Although Plato's Republic is best known for its definitive defense of justice, it also includes an equally powerful defense of philosophical education. Socrates, who was loved by many for his wit and his wisdom, has been dead equally long. Plato the man has been dead for two and a half thousand years. These things will not go away, they will stay around humans, to be loved and admired, forever. And when we engage erotically with these things, we produce eternal offspring: another melody, a new formula, a better argument. So how can we satisfy that? By uniting with these things that are not ephemeral, things that are eternal, things that won’t die: the abstract beauty of a formula describing a seashell. But our desire to be united with beauty is still there, as long as we live. Sunsets end, melodies fade into silence, seashells break. Love is the desire for the eternal possession of the good.īut nothing is forever. And then we notice that we’re also attracted to other things that are beautiful: a sunset, a haunting melody, the spiral form of a seashell, perhaps even a mathematical formula, or the clever way a philosophical argument works. And so our understanding of beauty grows wider, to include these things. And we notice that there are other kinds of beauty: when the beauty of the body fades with age, the beauty of the mind becomes more prominent. We’re attracted to every beautiful body, and thus to the beauty itself that is common in them. But if we follow our instincts for a while, we’ll notice that it’s not one particular body we’re attracted to. ![]() We love to look at a beautiful face, a perfect body. We are striving for perfection, says Plato. Possession? What is a good? And why should it be eternal? ![]() “Love is the desire for the eternal possession of the good.” In the Symposion, perhaps the most famous of the ancient Greek philosophical texts on love, Plato gives us a definition of what love is:
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