The Republic · ¶4931

Education. [Education in the Republic is divided into two parts, (i) the common education of the citizens; (ii) the special education of the rulers. (i) The first, beginning with childhood in the plays of the children [cp. Laws 1. 643 B], is the old Hellenic education, [the καταβεβλημένα παιδεύματα of Aristotle, Pol. viii. 2, § 6], —‘music for the mind and gymnastic for the body’ [cp. Laws 7. 795 E]. But Plato soon discovers that both are really intended for the benefit of the soul [cp. Laws 5. 743 D]; and under ‘music’ he includes literature (λόγοι), i.e. humane culture as distinguished from scientific knowledge. Music precedes gymnastic; both are not to be learned together; only the simpler kinds of either are tolerated [cp. Laws Book VII, passim]. Boys and girls share equally in both [cp. Laws 7. 794 D]. The greatest attention must be paid to good surroundings; nothing mean or vile must meet the eye or strike the ear of the young scholar. The fairy tales of childhood and the fictions of the poets are alike placed under censorship [cp. Laws Book X, and see s. v. Poetry]. Gentleness is to be united with manliness; beauty of form and activity of mind are to mingle in perfect and harmonious accord. —(ii) The special education commences at twenty by the selection of the most promising students. These spend ten years in the acquisition of the higher branches of arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, harmony [cp. Laws 7. 817 E], which are not to be pursued in a scientific spirit or for utility only, but rather with a view to their combination by means of dialectic into an ideal of all knowledge (see s. v. Dialectic). At thirty a further selection is made: those selected spend five years in the study of philosophy, are then sent into active life for fifteen years, and finally after fifty return to philosophy, which for the remainder of their days is to form their chief occupation (see s. v. Rulers).]

Plato · translated by Benjamin Jowett · composite transcription based on the 1888 third edition
Benjamin Jowett, revised third edition (1888), with Stephanus numbering from the 1908 edition; composite transcription, Project Gutenberg #55201
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