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Plato's Theory Of Education Analysis

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It can be seen from both ancient and modern history, that they were few philosophers that held much of an influence on educational thinking than that of Plato, and in particular his ideals on education as described within his ‘Republic.’ His writings regarding education continue to be the highlight of debate to this very day. The community in which he envisioned, has continually motivated the way educational leaders think and express their views; and his studies paved the way for the educational foundations laid down in the now. It is with this said, that the proposed purpose of the essay is to discuss and examine Plato’s Theory of Education within the ‘Republic,’ whilst also considering its relation to his theory of the soul.
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He concluded that these three segments were what the people required in order to make up the society in which he desired. For example, depending on how the three segments of the soul had been arranged, depended on the class that each individual ended up living in. Hence, people were happy with the class they had been given because either way they were going to flourish as a somebody. It was here that Plato believed that education would make individuals well balanced people through the use of the three segments that were also well …show more content…

It was Plato’s way of stemming to the root of all human beings by insisting that they presented the same traits and functions as one another. In applying this concept, Plato assumed that every human being, just like the state they resided in, was made up of various distinctive traits, that took on specific roles to maintain. But Plato also disputed that there was little to no evidence of such a notion in an everyday sense of the meaning. As a human race, we constantly face choices of what to do, and in most cases, find ourselves at a crossroads to make certain decisions all at once. The only way we can distinguish these directions, is to categorize all the elements within ourselves. (Republic 436b) #didn’t know how to reference this

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Education is proven by both texts to be ultimately essential in our lives. In "Allegory of the Cave" By Plato, it is seen that the imprisoned are controlled by authorities who are more

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Specifically, this notion derives from Plato and his conception

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Beginning with the fact that the people receiving the education (the guardians) are tasked with ensuring the safety therefor the vitality of the city. Socrates explains that this is one of the more crucial aspects to establishing this utopian style city. And for the guardians to be successful at what they must do, they must be selfless, fearless, and obedient individuals who put the success and the security of the city above their own personal needs. Socrates suggests that in order for these guardians to do exactly that and to ensure that they themselves do not eventually terrorize the citizens; they must be taught at a young age the virtues of courage, moderation, and justice. For this reason I see the merit in Socrates interpretation of education, simply because it is for the purpose of creating an elite class of individuals tasked with protecting the livelihood of the city.

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The existence and continual study of Socrates’ philosophy regardless of differing accounts is astonishing in itself since it survived not through the specific philosopher, but through other people. Which is a testament of the impact that a man, such as Socrates, can make. When we think of Plato, who is regarded as a father of western philosophy, we are quick to think of his major work The Republic, his student Aristotle, and his writing on Socrates. (We think of his writings on Socrates as mere footnotes in philosophical thought without examining them.) “Nothing comes from nothing,” Parmenides proudly claimed, and this philosophical doctrine applies to Plato’s thought.

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Socrates in the dialogue Alcibiades written by Plato provides an argument as to why the self is the soul rather than the body. In this dialogue Alcibiades and Socrates get into a discussion on how to cultivate the self which they both mutually agree is the soul, and how to make the soul better by properly taking care of it. One way Socrates describes the relationship between the soul and the body is by analogy of user and instrument, the former being the entity which has the power to affect the latter. In this paper I will explain Socrates’ arguments on why the self is the soul and I will comment on what it means to cultivate it.

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This emphasis should not be ignored. Plato places great, if not primary, value on education. The prudent, early nurturing citizens of the State receive readies them for smaller tasks that Socrates admits in the dialogue he has no time to address. It is the carefully prepared wool ground, Socrates illustrates in an extended metaphor, on which the dyer sets his vivid colors. Plato's famous Academy, ancient prototype for the university, was constructed with the same principles in mind.

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1. I think one of the most important ideas that Plato expresses comes from Book VII of the Republic, in the Allegory of the Cave. It is an idea that states that the extent of our knowledge will usually only cover topics that we’ve had exposure in. Today, society’s access to information is abundant, but not everyone makes the decision to find that information. Thus, as a person grows up with the scope of their perception isolated in a certain environment (village, city, state, country, etc.), they may not be able to pull a good variety of influence and knowledge from areas outside their scope.

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In The Republic, Plato writes about his thoughts on good, justice, and how we can achieve it. He starts off by stating that for human happiness and to live the best life philosopher-kings are needed. Not everyone can become a philosopher; certain people simply are non-philosophers also called lovers of sights and sounds. Plato makes the distinction between lovers of wisdom(philosophers) and lovers of sights and sounds clear using beauty as an example. Non-philosophers see ''fine tones and colours and forms and all the artificial products that are made out of them''(476b) but are unable to see or to understand absolute beauty.

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Tripartite of the Psyche The author Plato’s central focus in “The Republic” is to answer the questions of what makes a person just. To tackle this question, Plato’s character Socrates first starts off by recognizing that identifying justice in a state would be easier than defining justice in a person, since a government is on a larger scale and thus provides a clearer representation. As Socrates characterizes justice, in an ideal state, as the three parts of the state working in harmony—the rules, the auxiliaries, and the artisans—he concludes that this harmony of parts holds true for justice in an individual. After Socrates sets up the three components of the ideal state, he moves on to defining the three components of a person’s psyche.

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Children were taken from their parents at birth and raised together. The purpose of this was driven by the idea of eugenics which would create the ideal society, which to Plato would be ruled by Philosopher-Kings. This links back to the Simile of the Cave, which the subject who left the cave is the Philosopher-King and that they have the responsibility to rule over their fellow men. To Plato, only those who are educated in "the principles of good government" (264) should be in power, thus Philosophers have the qualifications to be a leader in Greek society because they seek knowledge outside of the material realm. Plato, in book ten of Republic , discusses the negative influence art and poetry has on rational souls.

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It never changes and yet causes the essential nature of things we perceive in the world. These two perceptions are what Plato describes as the divided line or the journey of self discovery. This progression of the spirit, that can never be reached, becomes the ideal. Plato’s discussions include the involvement of the soul. It is clear, that the main reason for dealing with the soul is to achieve this state

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Indeed, Plato believes in the existence of people that have reason ruling them giving them wisdom who contrast to the rest of population that either have their desires ruling them or honour. Those superior beings are the philosophers and Plato sees them as primordial to a civilization. Plato’s preference in inequality is portrayed in the analogy of the ship

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This logically leads to debates of human countryside, the success of knowledge, the distinction between presence and realism, the components of an real education, and the basics of principles. The republic is a Socratic discussion, inscribed by Plato around 380 BC. It is a 4 volume book. Plato 's advanced philosophical opinions appears in The Republic.

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Was Plato a Feminist? Plato was one of the only few philosophers from the ancient Greeks who believes the modern feminists’ view of men and women being equal in the society. Throughout the history, many people consider him as “the first feminist” and use his writings and dialogues as the support for the feminist movement. Plato asserts his belief in Book V of the Republic that jobs and responsibilities should be distributed by the person’s nature instead of neither the gender nor the appearance in an ideal state. The main argument of his belief is very similar to what feminist movements are proposing, which that the gender and biological differences should not determine the role of women in the society.

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Education can be explained as the process of acquiring knowledge, skills, values, beliefs and habits, and is the most valuable resource that one could have in life as, firstly, education facilitates learning and critical thinking, secondly, it allows for dreams of the future in terms of success to become a reality and lastly, it prevents the children of today from risking their future due to the influence of environmental hazards (Brooks, 2006). After studying the points discussed, it can be said that education plays an important role in the development of each and every human being and is not on categorized under scholarly education but rather any experience that allows an individual to broaden his/her knowledge. Amy Gutmann, an American political theorist proposed a theory surrounded around the democratic state of education requiring parents and states - to surrender some educational authority to professional education staffs’, also indicating that the children of today do not just benefit from freedom of choice, or identification with and participation in the positive aspects of their family and political aspects of the society. Amy’s theory is based on the characterisation of the three models of educational control namely Locke’s Theory of Parental control,

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