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Unit 2: Plato’s Communism and Theory of Education

Neither will do without the other; you cannot create the required nature, but you can Notes
by nurture do everything. Short of that, and without the proper nurture the best
nature is likely to turn out ill as to turn out well.
Plato was also confident that young minds could be shaped, if directed properly. He stressed the
tremendous receptive potential of the human mind, which was why early education played
a crucial role in the overall development of the individual. At this point, the educator might try
and train the individual to restrain desires, for control and harnessing of non-rational aspects of
the soul was an important prerequisite for the full development of the rational. Elementary education
helped to attain the first goal, while higher education ensured the development of a rational soul.
Elementary Education

Plato recommended a state-controlled, compulsory and comprehensive scheme of education in
two phases: In the first phase, elementary education that would be confined to the young till the
age of 18, followed by two years of compulsory military training and then higher education the
second phase for the selected persons of both the sexes who would be members of the ruling class,
from the age twenty to thirty five. In doing so he promoted two aims: first to ensure universal
literacy and second adequate and proper training for the members of the ruling class in the state.
While elementary education made the soul responsive to the environment, higher education helped
the soul to search for truth which illuminated it. It trained the human eye to respond slowly to the
glow of pure light through strict discipline and hard work. Elementary education enabled the
individual soul to develop fullness of experience, both theoretical and practical. It trained the
human mind in moral and aesthetic judgement. It developed the physical body to be healthy and
athletic.
Both boys and girls received the same kind of education, far beyond the physical distinctions. Plato
did not find any difference between the sexes in talents and skills, thus making a subtle criticism of
the secondary status accorded to women in ancient Greece. The theme of women’s participation in
politics was the main subject of one of the comedies of Aristophanes (447-385 BC) Women in Parliament
(Ecclesiazusae) which discussed the status of women as early as 393 BC. Plato followed Aristophanes.
Elementary education consisted of music and gymnastics, designed to train and blends the gentle
and fierce qualities in the individual and creates a “harmonious person”. Gymnastics provided
poise to feelings, and tempered spirits. It involved the training of the body for the sake of the
mind. Music tried to soften the spirit by developing the nascent power of reason. It inculcated the
power of right opinion. The rhythm and diction of poetry, the sound of musical instruments, the
shades, colours and shapes of art not only gave an artistic sense, but also carried with it a moral
suggestion, a love for doing the right thing. It would uphold the social practice of each individual
doing one work, without being a busybody. It was to instill values of simplicity, justice, conformity
to a single principle and acceptance of austere life:
And so we may venture to assert that anyone who can produce the perfect blend of the
physical and intellectual sides of education and apply them to the training of character
is producing music and harmony of far more importance than any mere musician’s
tuning of strings.
Plato recommended censorship of literature and music to encourage the virtues necessary in the
guardian class, for denuding the spirit and making reason supreme. Censorship of poetry, stories
and tales was undertaken to ensure that the impressionable young minds were not exposed to
harmful ideas. Plato forbade Lydian and Ionian harmonies, for they expressed sorrow and lethargy
respectively. Only Dorian and Phrygian ones were permitted, for they inculcated courage and
temperance respectively. He prohibited the reading of Homer and Hesoid, for they showed gods
behaving badly on certain occasions. Their poems made readers fear death, did not reflect the
importance of decorum, and discouraged temperance by praising the rich feasting and other lusts

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