Written by Nethra Singhi
The Philosophy of Education is a reflection on the nature, aims and problems of education. It is a branch of applied philosophy that borrows from epistemology, metaphysics, language etc. It looks at both the theoretical and practical aspects of education from a philosophical angle. Now, because educational practice is so wide and varied around the world, there are of course variations in the philosophy of education as well.
This series of articles aims at analysing the different theories on education famous philosophers across history had and their application in the contemporary education system. The first philosopher we look towards is Plato and his take on an educational philosophy in his book, Republic. The section on education in the book is widely considered to be the first treatise on education in the Western World.
Plato’s Philosophy
In order to understand Plato’s approach to education, one must first understand the base of all his philosophy. Plato firmly believed that there is an ideal, perfect world where the perfect form of all thoughts and objects exist. This world is beyond the physical world, which is an imperfect copy of the former. Thus there is an ideal man, but not in this world. The men in the physical world can only achieve a semblance of perfect form, that too with continuous thought.
Plato’s Philosophy of Education
Plato believed that knowledge in the ideal world is complete and eternal, but diminishes when passed to man in the physical world. But going about daily routine helps one recollect this knowledge. Thus, education is a matter of recollection of knowledge from the perfect world, the discovery of previously acquired knowledge that is very important to live a complete life.
He also was disturbed by the fact that Athenian rulers did not receive any special training and that education was not a priority of the state. This was because justice was considered purity which was considered a virtue in ancient Greece, and this knowledge should be pure and just. It should question the state and its corruption, and improve social conditions.
Thus he believed that education should be the first priority of the ruler. He also believed it should be fully handled by the state, in the sense that the child should be taken away from the parents and fully educated by the state. This is because he had a standardized education format made as per age, social class and gender that every child should be exposed to.
In Republic, Plato describes learning as a lifelong process, a continuous journey that does not stop with school. There are different things to learn at different ages, but there is no end limit to learning.
Plato’s Approach to Educational Practice
The main difference between traditional Athenian education and Plato’s educational philosophy is that Plato believed that both boys and girls should be educated, whereas only boys were taught in Athens. Despite differing roles in society, Plato was of the opinion that everyone should be given the same basic education.
But, apart from basic learning, Plato believed that every individual should undergo specialist technical training in accordance with their abilities. Equal opportunity did not mean anyone could study anything, but rather that one could only study what their ability dictated.
While this idea was egalitarian, ability in then Athens was often dictated by birth. Thus knowledge was distributed in accordance with societal hierarchy. His model of education was based on the belief that only a few people are capable of attaining the highest form of knowledge, thus only these people will exercise political power responsibly. While he did not dictate that these people were of noble birth, that was how it was in practice.
Plato believed that learning comes from doing and ‘playing’. His idea was that there were ideal ages to learn certain things and these ages dictate the method and content of learning. For instance, he wrote in the Republic that young children should be introduced to stories and poems before they are of the age to learn gymnastic. His curriculum distributed age-wise can be seen in the image below, as taken from here.
How is Plato’s Philosophy Reflected in Contemporary Education?
One major similarity between contemporary education and Plato’s model you must have noticed is the distribution of subjects according to age groups. The modern education system also believes in starting education from generalised, simplified concepts to more complex, specific ones.
The other is, despite the different context, the belief in providing equal opportunities to everybody. While Plato maintained that education is for all, special emphasis was always on men, especially the aristocracy. Modern-day education, especially in India, places great emphasis on the equality aspect and includes women and every class of citizens. It fully realizes Plato’s belief in social harmony through social justice through the equal opportunity of education.
Where the above point differs from Plato’s ideas is that in contemporary education, all educational opportunities are available to everyone regardless of whatever their perceived ability is. At least in theory. Access to education is still limited by social and economic power in a lot of areas.
The Plato belief of learning by play is another concept gaining popularity in Indian education these days, which places emphasis on doing to learn rather than rote learning. The importance of practical application of knowledge is prevalent in Plato’s philosophy and modern education.
Final Thoughts
A lot of Plato’s ideas on education are still imbibed in the pedagogy of modern education. His approach to the theory and content of education is something that modern education should take notes from because it deals with both body and mind. This is the basis of Liberal Arts education that many colleges are offering today.
What other parallels can you draw between Indian Education and Plato’s Philosophy of Education? Which other philosopher/thinker’s philosophy do you want to us analyse next?
References
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Jowett, Benjamin. The Republic. Courier Corporation, 2000.
Krentz, Arthur A. “Play and education in Plato’s republic.” The Paideia Archive: Twentieth World Congress of Philosophy. Vol. 29. 1998.
Lee, Myungjoon, “Plato’s philosophy of education: Its implication for current education” (1994). Dissertations (1962–2010) Access via Proquest Digital Dissertations. AAI9517932.
Sanni, Aminu, and Danladi Momoh. “PLATO’S PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION AND ITS IMPLICATIONS TO COUNSELLING.” British Journal of Education, vol. 7, no. 4, 2019, pp. 66–73.
Santas, Gerasimos. Understanding Plato’s Republic. John Wiley & Sons, 2010
Siegel, Harvey, D.C. Phillips, and Eamonn Callan, “Philosophy of Education”, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2018 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2018/entries/education-philosophy/>
Siegel, Harvey. “philosophy of education”. Encyclopedia Britannica, 23 Oct. 2020, https://www.britannica.com/topic/philosophy-of-education.
Tesar, Marek, and Kirsten Locke. The philosophy of education. Ed. Richard Stanley Peters. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1973.
Vass, Dewey Houston. Plato’s Philosophy of Education. Diss. The University of Chicago, 1929.
ThroughEducation. “What Were Plato’s Thoughts on Education?” Through Education, 12 Dec. 2019, https://www.througheducation.com/platos-theory-of-education-explained/.
