One thing that is clear in book 3 of Plato’s Republic is that he is not an advocate of such modern ideas as free speech or academic freedom in regard to education. His primary concern is the education of his guardians, the ruling class/protector of the state, but the qualities they embody. Following this, he finally argues for the strictest form of indoctrination, so that the whole city feels its burden. He contends that tutors should be instituted primarily to honor the gods, parents, and friends. They do not fear death or hell; let them fear slavery more than death.
According to Socrates, education should primarily consist of two parts: music (which includes things such as storytelling and poetry), and gymnastics (physical education. . He begins the music, using almost draconian expressions in it. For example, he believes that such a prayer should be replaced by “the terrible Styx” and the “people of hell”. He will not think that it is so terrible to lose a son, or a brother, or wealth.
truth is most dear. God, they never lie. Leaders can lie, but only for the republic, in the same way a doctor can use lies. and treatments) to ultimately benefit the patient. But normal citizens do not lie; if they did, it must be considered a great sin. abstinence must be considered a virtue. Wherefore the citizens must obey their rulers, and seek to be controlled by their own bodily appetites. Likewise, heroic endurance against almost insurmountable odds is to be commended. Gifts are not to be accepted by men, nor by the gods (as regards the latter to religious sacrifices, although Plato does not explain here. The demigod, Achilles, should not be portrayed as greedy and arrogant. Nor did he steal the demigods, Theseus and Pirithous.
If the poets say that injustice among men is hidden, sometimes it returns and leads to happiness, sometimes justice leads to misery. Socrates does not tolerate this speech in his city. However, he shows himself to return to the first question of the debate, the main argument of the Republic: what justice is, and what men should pursue. Hence he cannot proceed any further with regard to men, unless he has first resolved that original question; by which all the aforesaid things fall into place.
Having finished his discourse on the substance of stories to be told in poetry, and how they should be changed in their state, Socrates now turns to the phrase. With him there are three kinds of poems: Tragedy, comedy, dithyramb, and epic. Tragedy and Comedy use imitative language; that is, the narrator of the poem assimilates his main character to the person he is talking about. In a dithyramb, the narrator simply tells a story much like the present, although in Greek times the verse is often set. Both phrases use the form of an epic poem, changing and retracting throughout.
Part of education is to determine what is appropriate for young people to imitate, so they will grow up to the habits they are already accustomed to. That is to say, if guardians are imitated, from childhood they are to be imitated only those things which are suitable for the artificers of civil liberty: fortitude, sobriety, piety, freedom, etc. it is permissible to imitate women, to detest heaven, to boast greatly, &c. Thus a righteous man will use both narration and imitation, but with a much smaller measure of imitation, as he will imitate only those worthy men and things. A bad imitation will make the most of it.
Of course, Socrates, he will only allow a man into his own city. The unscrupulous imitators, if they enter, are well taken care of, and then let go.
Socrates will give a similar treatment in poems and melodies. He even goes so far as to remove some music from the city. The last thing is that they purged the luxurious city, leaving it with something closer to the former vision of Socrates in lib. II. Further analyzing the poem, Socrates says that there are numbers and good numbers and bad numbers are accompanied by indecent and indecent things. The rhythm follows the phrase, which follows the mood. Good speech, good harmony, good grace, and good numbers come from good disposition, and mean a really good character regulated by reason. Goodness of heart is commonly called weakness of head.
Here Socrates expands his plans for education to the rest of the population. Accordingly, they are forced to incorporate the aforementioned principles in their individual skills, so that the guardians, while acting as citizens, are not corrupted by their environment.
According to Socrates, the supreme teacher is music, because it consists in harmony and beauty, to which the mind is great. affinity We only learn to read when we are able to recognize letters in everything. Analogously, let us only become true musicians, when we recognize the forms of sobriety, courage, liberality, and spirit, and of all their kinds, and also their opposites in all their combinations and instantiations (that is, cf. namely to Plato’s well-known Theory of Forms.
According to Socrates, those with the most beautiful disposition and the most beautiful body are the most beautiful and lovely persons. Prefers, of course, the disposition of the mind; that is, a beautiful soul is preferred to a beautiful body, and so is the body. This leads to a short discussion of love. According to him, right love is a sober and harmonious love of order and beauty (i.e. the disposition of the soul), not romantic love, which is designated by Aphrodite. The ideal love between lovers should be non-physical (Plato goes into much more detail about the topic of love in the Symposium). Lovers can kiss like father and son, but they can’t go any further. The end and consummation of culture is the love of the beautiful. A healthy body does not give a healthy soul, but a healthy soul leads to the best possible body. This is the healthy soul which is the goal and effect of the education mentioned above.
Socrates, discussing the education of his guardians through poetry, fables, and stories, that is, music, goes to the physical education of his guardians (that is, the gymnastic training) first defeated. He says that they ought not to consume any inebriates, and that they should always dine if they were in the midst of a campaign, and eat toast, which is easily prepared. He would dissolve the wars. Like music, simplicity in gymnastics and diet breeds health. Shamefully, he argues that he needs medicine because of his self-discipline. He pointed out to Herodicus, who mixed gymnastics and medicine, and only stayed at his death. If he deviated a little from his diet, he labored a lot and was finally given up to a demented old age. It shows that the engineer does not spend a long and drawn-out time caring, but makes them rich. In this case, excessive care of the body becomes an obstacle to living. Aesculapius Socrates, a god, a demigod, who gave medicine to the Greeks, did not treat those who were so sick as to be of no use to himself or to the state. In the case of Socrates, those who are too ill are left to die.
As for the soul, gymnastics has the opposite effect of music. Music is done in relaxation of the soul, gymnastics in vigor. The most beautiful souls are those who achieve the right concentration between the two effects by following both music and gymnastics. If a man is too devoted to music, he becomes too soft; if he is too devoted to gymnastics, he becomes more bitter.
Socrates moves to leaders and leadership. The princes must be greater, the greater the lesser. Leaders must be the best guardians, and that is what most statesmen should look to. From birth to probation they must be, until they are proved worthy and ready.
Finally, Socrates tells the story of the origin of princes, admonishing that such citizens should be taught to train, so that the magistrates may rule with justice. According to him, it should be considered the dream of all previous directors until they are ready to rule. Earth-born souls are considered gold. Their assistants will have souls formed of silver, and those who descend through the entire hierarchy of the state will have souls formed of less noble metals. It is worth noting that the classes are not simply determined by birth (see the short note on the constant testing of the princes), but rather by the “inner nature” of their disposition. /child-parenting”>a child is born to copper parents and vice versa. If such a thing happens, the child will be moved to whatever station it suits. Hence there is some mobility between classes.
The book explicitly raises the question of the tyranny of possible protectors with Socrates, saying that it is something that you must do so that you cannot. For this purpose, the guardians of Lacedaemon should live without private property except what is necessary for living, they should eat at the same time in the royal court and be forbidden to take other crafts. In the same way it must be said that even corporeal people pollute their souls by touching gold or silver. And this should be done in such a way that they do not become the savage masters of the rest of the city, although I add that I think it would have the opposite effect of Socrates. Certainly Socrates is aware of such an argument, but he does not address it in this book, but leaves it at the beginning of book IV.
