Page 24 - DPOL201_WESTERN_POLITICAL_THOUGHT_ENGLISH

Western Political Thought

Notes of gods. Plato was particularly insistent that children not fear or hate death; otherwise they would
not develop courage needed on the battlefield. He recommended that children be made to sit on
horseback and taken to the sight of actual war, so that they develop a fearless attitude towards
death. Children were to be told stories about gods and great persons to ensure their good moral
upbringing. Plato’s idea was to shut off all vice and ugliness from the life of a young person.
The principles that governed the selection of poetry, literature and musical instruments, also
dictated the selection of other forms of art: painting, weaving, embroidery and the making of
furniture. He prescribed strict diet control, with the purpose of imbibing what Pericles considered
“love of beauty without extravaganza, of culture without softness”. None would eat fish or cooked
meat, sauces or confectionery. Roast meat was allowed. The diet would be such that none would
fall sick. These measures aimed to bring about poise of feelings, control of emotions and a
harmonized social being. The environment had to be made beautiful and harmonious, because of
the indelible impression it left on the soul:
We shall thus prevent our guardians being brought up among representations of what
is evil, and so day by day and little by little, by grazing widely as it were in an
unhealthy pasture, insensibly doing themselves a cumulative psychological damage
that is very serious. We must look for artists and craftsmen capable of perceiving the
real nature of what is beautiful, and then our young men, living as it were in a healthy
climate, will benefit because all the works of art they see and hear influence them for
good, like the breezes from some healthy country, insensibly leading them from earliest
childhood into close sympathy and conformity with beauty and reason.

Plato permitted the playing of simple musical instruments: the lyre, the cithara and
shepherd pipes.

Training in the right virtues through stories and the like would create the perfect members of the
guardian class. With such a beginning, advancement towards right conduct became more
pronounced as one grew older.
Education in arts would be followed by two years of compulsory military training. The guardians
were perfected as professional warriors. Luxury and self-indulgence were prohibited with the
purpose of strengthening the spirit, without making it rigid or harsh. Plato reiterated the Athenian
practice which provided for compulsory military service between the ages of 17 or 18 and 20.
Elementary education perfected those souls who were receptive to habit and conditioning. These
souls would become auxiliaries.

Higher Education
At the age of 20, a selection was made. The best ones would take an advanced course in mathematics,
which would include arithmetic, plane and solid geometry, astronomy and harmonics. Arithmetic
was necessary, for it used “pure intelligence in the attainment of pure” truth”. Truth, for Plato,
resided in Thought and not in sense particulars. Besides this philosophical value, arithmetic had
a practical value too, namely the use of numbers. Warriors were to learn the use of numbers in
order to arrange the troops. Arithmetic, because of its philosophical and practical use, was studied
by the best. Geometry helped in the choice of positions and methods of tactics. It helped in easily
acquiring the vision of the Idea of Good. Astronomy and harmonics had the same value as arithmetic
and geometry. Astronomy was not merely restricted to observation of heavenly bodies, nor was
harmonics a learning to discriminate notes by ear, but both tried to elevate the mind from sense
perceptions and cultivate the power of reason. Higher education was to cultivate the spirit of free

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