incapable of attaining to 'knowledge'-that they pos

class.

Early educa

sessed only 'opinion.' In his most famous dialogue, In the Republic The Republic, he endeavors to show that the ideal state government was to be by can exist only when the entire control of the government the intellectual is entrusted to the 'philosophers,' or intellectual class, who alone possess 'real knowledge.' Those who are to compose the three classes of society Plato would have selected during the educational process on the basis of their ability. For all boys up to eighteen years of age he prescribes an education similar to that in vogue in the palaestra, didascaleum, and gymnasium, except that he would somewhat expurgate the literary element, and tion. would confine the musical training to the simpler melodies and instruments. The youths who prove capable of going beyond this lower education are next to take up the cadet training between eighteen and twenty, but Cadet training. those who are incapable of further education are to be relegated to the industrial class. During the cadet period are to be determined those capable of going on with the higher education of philosophers, while those who here reach their limit become members of the military class.

tion for philos

As Athenian education did not extend beyond the twentieth year, Plato is here obliged to invent a new course of study that will enable the future philosophers to acquire the habit of speculation. This additional Higher educacourse, he declares, should also be graded, in order that ophers: a further test of intellectual and moral qualities may be made. Arithmetic, plane and solid geometry, music, and astronomy, are to occupy the first ten years of the course. (1) mathematical subjects; These subjects, however, are not to be studied for calculation or practical purposes of any sort, but entirely

(2) dialectic.

Return to

of the indi

vidual; neglect of human will;

from the standpoint of theory or the universal relations underlying them, since only thus can they furnish a capacity for abstract thought. After this, at thirty, the young men who can go no further, are to be placed in the minor offices of the state, while those who have shown themselves capable of the study of dialectic, go on with that subject for five years longer. It then becomes the duty of these highest philosophers to guide and control the state until they have reached the age of fifty, when they may be allowed to retire.

The Weakness of Plato's System. Thus, where Socrates found the basis of universal truth in everyone, Plato held that only one class of people, the most intellectual, could attain to real knowledge. He, therefore, maintained that the philosophers should absolutely guide the conduct of the state, and that education should be organized with that in view. Plato's ideal state would thus become a sort of intellectual oligarchy, and in a subordination way was a return to the old principle of subordinating the individual to society. The Republic thus quite neglected human will as a factor in society and assumed that men can be moved about in life like pieces upon the chess board. Plato failed to see, too, that each individual really possesses all human characteristics. The workers have reason, and the philosophers have passions, and a human being is not a man unless all these functions are his. But even if his scheme had been a happy one, the treatise provided no method of evolution from current conditions, and if it were further granted that this order of things could be established at once. Plato put the ban upon all innovation or change, and so closed the door to progress.

failure to see

all human

traits in each

individual;

no means of evolution.

fered a more

traditional

Hence The Republic was viewed as a visionary conception, and had no immediate effect upon education or any other institution of Athens. So in his declining years, without denying The Republic as ideal, he wrote the more practical dialogue known as The Laws. In it The Laws ofhe welded elements from the educational systems of practical and Sparta and older Athens, and reverted to traditions and system of ideals not dissimilar to the doctrines of Pythagoras. He replaced the philosophers with priests, an hereditary ruler, a superintendent of education, and various other officials; and the course of study reached its height with the subject of mathematics, while dialectic was not mentioned.

education.

His Influence upon Educational Theory and Practice. Thus the efforts of Socrates, as continued by Plato, to obtain the benefit of the growing individualism for society and education without disrupting them, had seemingly come to naught. Nevertheless, Plato has had considerable influence upon the thought and practice of men since the Greek period. The ideal society where everything is well managed and everyone is in the position for which nature intended him, has ever since the day of The Republic been a favorite theme for writers, as witness More's Utopia and the New Atlantis of Bacon. Model for later A specific movement that shows the impress of Plato, as we shall see later, is the formulation of the more advanced studies of the mediæval 'seven liberal arts' under the name of the 'quadrivium.' It is even possible, and The 'quadrivthat the whole conception of 'liberal' studies, and so the formal discidoctrine of 'formal discipline' (see p. 182), may be traced back to Plato's idea that the mathematical subjects in the course for philosophers should never be studied from

Utopias.

pline.'

a practical point of view. On the whole, Plato has been a factor in educational theory and practice that cannot be overlooked.

Aristotle's Ideal State and Education.-A more practical attempt to unify the new with the old in Athenian society and education was made by Aristotle (386322 B. C.), the pupil of Plato. From his father, the court physician at Macedon, and from his study under Plato, Aristotle obtained an excellent scientific training, which is evident in the way he approaches his problems. It is in his Politics especially that he discusses the ideal state and the training of a citizen. His method of investigation to determine the nature of this ideal state is inductive, and before formulating his conception of it, he makes a critical analysis of Plato's Republic and Laws, and analyzes the organization of many other states, both ideal and actual. He concludes that a monarchy is

Theoretically a theoretically the best type of government, but that the monarchy, but practically a form most likely to be exercised for the good of the govdemocracy is best. erned is the democracy. He then considers in detail the best natural and social conditions for a state. Among these practical considerations is the proper education to make its citizens virtuous.

Education necessary for virtue.

Since virtue is of two kinds, moral or practical, and intellectual or speculative, and the former is merely the stepping-stone to the latter, the education needed for the virtue of the state must not, like that of Sparta, be purely a training for war and practical affairs. In marking off the periods of education, Aristotle holds that "the Training of the care of the body ought to precede that of the soul, and the training of the impulsive side of the soul ought to come next; nevertheless, the care of it must be for the

body,

sake of the reason, and the care of the body for the sake of the soul." The development of the body he wishes to start even before birth by having the legislator "consider sensible advice. at what age his citizens should marry and who are fit to marry." Also he deems it necessary to sanction the usage of his time of 'exposing' (see p. 13) all deformed and weakly children. However, his advice concerning the food, clothing, and exercise of children is humane and in keeping with the best modern hygiene.

The training of the body is a preparation for the formal schooling, which is to last from seven to twenty-one. This is divided into two periods by puberty, the first to be devoted to the training of the impulsive or irrational side of the soul, and the second to that of the ra- Training of the tional side. Education, he claims, should be public, as soul,

irrational

music, and

jects.

in Sparta, for it is the business of the state to see that its citizens are all rendered virtuous. However, the industrial classes, not being citizens, have no need of education, and women are to be limited in the scope of their training. The course of study for the irrational period is largely the same as that in use at Athens,-gymnastics, music, and literary subjects, although he recommends gymnastics, some reforms. Gymnastics is intended for self-control and literary subbeauty of form, and the making of neither athletes nor warriors should be the object, since the training of the former exhausts the constitution, and that of the latter is brutalizing. The literary subjects, which with Aristotle includes drawing, as well as reading and writing, are not to be taught merely for utilitarian reasons. Music is to be used not so much for relaxation or intellectual enjoyment as for higher development. Since melodies that afford pleasure are connected with noble ideas, and those