V. GREEK EDUCATIONAL THEORISTS: THE PHILOSOPHICAL VIEW The Period and the Authority. As has been already indicated, the period is that of the conflict between the old and the new educational ideas. Plato is the most important representative of the educational theorists, whether judged from the extent, the immediate influence, or the permanent suggestiveness, of his writings. Plato was born in 428 or 427 B.C., probably in Athens. Until the age of twenty his interest was centred in poetry and music. He then fell under the influence of Socrates. From that time until the death of Socrates, eight years later, Plato was one of his most devoted pupils. The thirteen years following the death of his master, Plato devoted to travel and to the study of philosophy, mathematics, and kindred subjects, chiefly in Italy, Sicily, and Egypt. In 386 Plato returned permanently to Athens and began his continuous formal teaching. Here, in a private home and garden adjoining the sacred garden and gymnasium of Academus, Plato established his school, the first of the permanent philosophical schools. For thirty-six years Plato taught a distinguished group of pupils, drawn. not only from Athens, but also from many distant places as well. During this long period most of the dialogues. were produced, though not one of them contains any definite internal evidence of its date. For thirty-three years after the death of Plato the school was under the direc tion of teachers that had been in close personal contact with the founder. During this period the Platonic writings were carefully preserved and copies made, so that it is believed that the complete works are extant. In the latest group of the dialogues fall the two that contain the educational discussions, the Republic and the Laws. The Republic is the great constructive work of Plato. Its professed subject is, What is Justice? But this subject is expanded to include a theory of psychology, a theory of knowledge, a theory of the soul, a theory of the state or of politics, a theory of human society, or of ethics, and a theory of education, with the last of which alone these selections have to do. Plato's solution of the problem raised by the conflict between the new education and the old, is the formation of a new state based upon the principle of justice, that principle in the state coinciding with happiness, or rather virtue, in the individual. To determine the nature of justice and the means of establishing it, is the chief purpose of the dialogue. The Platonic scheme of education is the result. Since justice is to be developed from the "knowledge" or "intelligence" of Socrates, the nature of justice and of the state can be most readily discovered by an analysis of the individual. The faculties of the individual are three: the intelligence, seated in the head; courage or spirit, a function of the heart; the appetites, lodged in the abdomen. Each has its proper function, which constitutes its worth. When properly performed, the functioning of the intelligence constitutes prudence; that of courage, fortitude; that of the appetites, temperance. The combination of these three produces individual wellbeing, or virtue. By a similar analysis, the faculties of society are found in the three great classes, the philosophic, the military, and the industrial. The virtues of these classes correspond to the virtues of the faculties of the individual. The proper function of the first class is to rule; of the second, is to protect; of the third, to support. The combination of these virtues in society produces justice. Plato defines the principles that are yet recognized as the basis of society, the reciprocity of needs and services, and the education of each individual for the performance of some function in this interchange of services. If the Platonic restriction of these needs and services to special classes is a marked limitation, it is to be recalled that this discussion forms one of the earliest analyses in the history of ethics. It will be recalled that the Socratic solution of the educational problem was that the new state of society was to be based on knowledge, that the germs of knowledge were inherent in every human being, by virtue of his own experience, and that these germs could be developed by the dialectic process. Plato departs from this solution in two important respects. He elaborates a definite theory of knowledge, more restricted than that of Socrates. As with Socrates, knowledge in the Platonic sense consists of whole thoughts; but whole thoughts are ideas, are universals as opposed to individuals. Such knowledge can be attained only by a few; while the germs of knowledge are present in the experience of every one, and can be developed by reflection and the dialectic process, knowledge itself can be attained only by those who have a higher, a sixth sense, the sense for ideas. Those who have this sense form the philosophic class, and they alone are free, they alone should rule society. This is the second important divergence from the Socratic teaching. Knowledge is not an actual possession, or even a possible possession, of every human being. Hence every one cannot be free, cannot control his own conduct by the knowledge which he may attain. It is only a certain limited class, the philosophers, that can do so. The appropriate function of these philosophers, then, since they alone can see the truth, is not only to direct their own conduct, but that of all members of the other classes. The philosophers are to be the rulers of the new society, when "philosophers are kings, or the kings and the princes of this world have the spirit and power of philosophy." The production of this class of guardians, and the perpetuation of this ideal state, forms the aim of the scheme of education elaborated in the Republic. The educational system of the Republic is designed especially for the guardian class; though all classes are to profit by the earlier stages of instruction, since one chief purpose of the system is to select the guardians. The Republic itself falls into two general divisions, each containing a discussion of a state and of a type of education. Both the state and the education of the first division, Books I. to V., inclusive, are very closely modelled after the actual Athenian conditions; in the second division, Books V. to X., the state becomes the ideal kingdom of the philosophers and the education there given is that suited to develop a philosophic class. The two schemes are really in opposition, though, as Plato suggests, the earlier sketch may be taken as an introduction to the later scheme. The education of the first four books is based upon the accepted Hellenic ideas of religion and morality, but in some respects is supplemented and purified. Plato holds that the Greeks in their education had really "builded better than they knew." In this portion of the Republic he aims to base their practices on theory instead of upon experience, and to make explicit that which has hitherto been but non-rational custom Education is comprehended in its two aspects, music and gymnastic; but the literary element of music is purified by the exclusion of the early poetry dealing with mythical subjects and is supplemented by a mathematical discipline, while gymnastic is now organized as a moral as well as physical discipline, and becomes largely military in character. The chief purpose of the discussion presented in the first selections is to clarify the principles underlying the old Greek educational practices, which had been developed empirically and not as a result of reflection. This scheme of education is designed for the first seventeen or eighteen years of life, and is for all youths, preparatory to the more rigid discipline for those who can profit by the highest theoretical education. The education of the select guardian class is described in detail in Book VII. For those who have demonstrated themselves worthy of this higher discipline, the period from twenty to thirty is devoted to scientific study, chiefly of a mathematical character. This division between the elementary and the higher education forms the basis for the subsequent division of the curriculum into the trivium and the quadrivium of the "seven liberal arts." The purpose of this prolonged discipline is to perfect the future philosophers in the grasp of fundamental laws and principles underlying all life and thought. This study is not to be separated from practical duties of military and civic char acter. The effect of this combined training of practical and theoretical character is to eliminate a large number of |