Plato is one of the few great and famous philosophers in ancient Greece. He is not only the direct successor of Socrates, but also an important influence on the thoughts of another famous philosopher, Aristotle. influencer. He has made pioneering contributions in the fields of philosophy, politics, ethics, logic and other fields. Almost all academic thoughts in modern times can find their origin in Plato's thoughts. Therefore, Plato is said to be the representative of ancient, medieval and modern times. It is no exaggeration to say that he is the most influential among modern philosophers. The most influential of Plato's thoughts is probably his philosophical thoughts, and he was also a famous educator. In his "State Chapter" and "Law Chapter", which will be remembered for generations to come, his thoughts on early childhood education, women's education, music and literature education, physical education and military education had an important impact on education in ancient Greece and later generations.
1. Early Education
In the history of Western education, Plato was the first to propose the idea of ??preschool education. He believed that the earlier children's education began, the better. "The beginning of everything is most important, especially living things. When they are young and tender, they are most easily cultivated. You can mold them into whatever shape you want." ("National Chapter" 377B) He even advocated prenatal education, "At the same time we must begin this work even before the child is born: the woman who is about to give birth must receive the kind of training necessary for the benefit of the unborn child." ("Laws" 789D) He believes that after the child is born, it must Make sure that the nurse gives him beneficial exercise and air even before he can walk, and especially that he does not injure himself by walking too early (Laws 789E). The baby should live as nearly as possible as if he had been on the sea; he should be bobbed up and down, and songs should be sung to him, so that he would not be frightened (Laws 790C-E). This is the first preparation for the development of courage and firmness of character. When the child is 3 years old or older, we can start to carefully correct him and let him start playing games. It is best to let the child invent his own games. At 6 years old, we should start teaching in earnest, and then separate girls and boys. Later, they should be taught to ride, shoot, throw, and throw, and attention should be paid to training children to use both left and right hands ("Laws" 793D-794D). Modern brain science shows that children's brains are highly malleable. Plato recognized that children's bodies and minds are highly malleable more than two thousand years ago, and therefore proposed the idea of ??early education. We have to pay tribute to Plato's Impressed by wisdom.
2. Music and physical education
Plato paid special attention to music, literature, art education and physical education for children. He believes that "education is to use gymnastics to train the body and music to cultivate the soul. Education should teach music first and then gymnastics, and include stories in music." ("State" 376E) An important cultural life in ancient Greece was listening to folk songs Artists played the harp and told epic stories, so the word "music" includes music, literature and other meanings, which is equivalent to the current word "culture".
He believes that literary and artistic education in children is crucial. “If a child receives a good education since childhood, and rhythm and harmony are immersed in the depths of his soul and take root firmly there, he will become gentle and polite; if he receives a bad education, the result will be the opposite. "("State" 401) He believes that the purpose of education in all types of music, poetry and art is to cultivate people's moral sentiments and cultivate people's moral character. The final purpose of music education is to achieve the love of beauty. ("State" 403c) Because of its subtle influence, music and poetry will inject the distinction between truth, goodness, and beauty, and falsehood, evil, and ugliness into people's hearts from an early age, making children "integrate with beauty and reason from childhood. 1. "("State" 401D) Because he attaches great importance to children's music and literature education, Plato advocates that the content of music and literature education should be strictly reviewed. "Preconceptions and opinions received in early years are always ingrained and cannot be easily changed. Therefore, we should pay special attention that in order to cultivate virtue, the first things children hear should be the most beautiful and noble stories." ("State" 378E) Therefore, " We first need to scrutinize the writers of the stories, accepting their good stories and rejecting the bad ones.
"("State" 377C) He proposed to formulate a law restricting music and poetry, stipulating what content of music and poetry can be promoted and what content of music and poetry must be banned, so as to "encourage mothers and nannies to tell their children about things that have already happened. judged stories and use these stories to mold their spirits. "("State" 379C)
Plato believed that after music education, young people should receive physical exercise. "In terms of sports, our guardians must also receive strict training from childhood and throughout their lives. "("State" 403D) He believes that the purpose of physical training is to adapt the body condition of the guards to the work of the guards. "They must be like police dogs that stay up all night; in their fighting life, they drink all kinds of water. It can swallow all kinds of food and can survive the scorching sun, storms and rain. "("State" 404B) Therefore, he required the guardians to give up drinking, eat simple food, and avoid lethargy.
Plato believed that music education and physical exercise should be organically combined, because "specialize in People who exercise often become excessively rough, and those who specialize in music and literature are inevitably excessively weak" ("State" 410D). Therefore, music and sports should be well coordinated so that "music and sports serve both parts of the person. —The intellectual part and the passionate part. "("State" 412)
3. Women's Education
Plato's educational thought not only attaches great importance to the education of men, but also advocates the same education for women. He is The first thinker in the West who advocated "equality between men and women" used animals as an analogy to prove that men and women should receive equal education. "In addition to considering female police dogs as the weaker ones and male ones as the stronger ones, we should. Everyone does all the work together. "("National Chapter" 451E) "Then, if we use women without distinction, just like men, we must first give women the same education. "("State" 452) He proposed that women should also be educated with music and gymnastics, and should also be given military education. He believed that the only difference between the sexes was only physical differences, in some aspects such as weaving, Women are better at cooking, making pastries, etc., and men are better than women at things like marching and fighting. Therefore, there is no job of managing a country that is exclusive to women just because women are doing it, or that is exclusive to women just because men are doing it. Men, women, and men can have the same talents and talents and are suitable for the position of national defenders. The only difference is that women are weaker and men are stronger.
4. The education of city-state defenders
Plato's educational thoughts directly serve the ideal country he built. He believes that there is only one important thing that rulers need to do, which is education, that is, cultivating good citizens through music and sports. Cultivating good physical quality, and then receiving good education will produce a better physique than the previous generation. This is not only beneficial to other purposes, but also beneficial to the progress of the human race. Here, Plato fully understood. He came to the great significance and role of education in enriching the country and strengthening the people. He believed that the ultimate goal of education was to cultivate truly kind defenders of the city-state with the highest knowledge. This purpose further reflected his idea of ??education serving national politics. /p>
As for the study content of the guardian, Plato believed that five preparatory subjects should be learned first: mathematics, plane geometry, solid geometry, astronomy and music theory. He believed that the reason why the ruler should learn this knowledge. , because they are not only useful in military operations, but more importantly, they can exercise the human mind and develop the ability to think abstractly. These objects of knowledge cannot be touched with feelings, and "can only be grasped with reason." No method will work. "("State" 526A) Through the learning of these knowledge, the soul of the ruler "turns from the changing world to 'truth and reality', and finally reaches the highest knowledge - 'goodness'". He believes that all these preparatory Subjects should be taught to the guardians when they are young and cannot be taught in a forced manner.
Plato believed that after learning the preparatory subjects, if you want to reach the state of "goodness", you must also accept "dialectics." " training.
He used the famous "metaphor of the cave" to elaborate on why he should learn "dialectics". He called the world inside the cave the "visible world" and the world outside the cave the "knowable world." Seeing the image of the puppet on the cave wall in the cave is equivalent to the "guessing" stage of understanding. Turning around and seeing the actual puppet is equivalent to the "believing" stage of understanding. When walking out of the cave into broad daylight, understanding has entered the "ideal world" ” (the stage of “knowledge”). The sun outside the cave is likened to the highest "good" idea in the world of ideas. He pointed out that just as the whole body cannot turn from darkness to light without changing its direction, we must "have a skill of turning the soul" to turn the organ of learning-the whole soul (which is similar to the eyes of seeing) away from the changing world. Individual things, the concept of looking at the real world head-on. The skill or knowledge of this "soul" turn is what he calls "dialectics."
Concerning the subjects of the aforementioned courses, Plato believed that the most determined, courageous, and, to the extent possible, the most graceful people must be selected. In addition, they must not only have noble and serious characters but also have Talents suitable for this type of education, such as having to study hard and being good at memorizing, etc.
Plato not only clearly stipulated the purpose and content of the guardian's education, but also discussed in detail the time arrangement of education and the selection of talents. He divided the timetable of guardian education into six stages: (1) Childhood-adolescence. Guardians receive music and physical education from an early age in order to take care of their souls and cultivate their noble moral sentiments. Their studies and philosophical lessons should be suitable for children's ability to accept them. (2) Seventeen or eighteen years old - twenty years old. This stage is mainly about carrying out necessary physical training and preparing physical conditions for philosophical research. (3) Twenty-thirty years old. The first selection was carried out to select those children who "always showed the most ability amidst hard physical exercise, study and the horror of war" ("State" 537A), and subjected them to mathematics, geometry, astronomy, music and other “dialectics” preparatory subject education. (4) Thirty years old - thirty-five years old. Conduct a second selection, "select the young people with the most talented people, give them higher honors when they reach thirty, and test them with dialectics." ("National Chapter" 537D) Those who take the exam can be allowed to "six or four years" (later "fixed to five years") to "concentrate on studying dialectics" ("State" 539DE). (5) Thirty-five years old - fifty years old. Use fifteen years to practice in actual work, "forcing them to be responsible for commanding wars or other official duties suitable for young people", with the purpose of "making them no worse than others in terms of practical experience" ("National Chapter" 539E), and at the same time They can also continue to test their qualities in official duties. (6) After the age of fifty - death. They must undergo the final test so that they can finally achieve "goodness" itself and manage the country, individual citizens and themselves well. Spend most of the remaining years studying philosophy, and after training the heirs of the country, they can resign their posts, enter the promised land, and settle down.
5. Plato’s Academy
In order to put his educational ideals into practice, Plato established his own academy in Arcademus, Athens. The exact date of the establishment of the academy is unknown. "From the obvious connection between the program for the creation of the Garden and the convictions established by Plato when he spoke of his visit to Italy and Sicily at the age of 40, we should naturally suppose that the Garden was built around this period (388-387 B.C. ). "[1]
The activities of the academy are mainly "lectures", and the study and research of geometry occupy a very important position in the academy. The famous saying "Those who do not know geometry, please do not enter our door" hanging at the entrance of the academy fully illustrates the importance Plato attaches to geometry. In addition to geometry, Plato's Academy also carried out extensive study and research on biology, geography, astronomy, cosmology and other subjects. In addition to the emphasis on liberal arts and science studies in the academy, the most important course that overrides all subjects is Plato's philosophy. He called the specific subjects before philosophy "preparatory subjects", and the study of philosophy The idea of ??the Good as the only way to the highest knowledge.
As an educational science center, Akademu Academy focuses on teaching and scientific research, but it is not an ivory tower isolated from the world. Plato's purpose in founding the academy was to achieve a new combination of philosophy and politics, and to cultivate a group of political talents who were proficient in philosophy, natural sciences and good at governing the country, so as to serve the ideal country in his mind.
II
Plato was the first person to propose a systematic education theory in the history of Western education. His educational thoughts cover all stages from preschool education to higher education. He has many ideas about education. His ideas and ideas are still shining brightly today. But its educational ideas, like other ideas, are more or less limited and conservative in the times.
Plato attached great importance to the political significance and role of education. His educational ideas were to serve his utopian state power. His educational activities have obvious social utility, and he places too much emphasis on the political function of education. Moreover, the education he provides to cultivate guardians can only be enjoyed by a very small number of people. Plato attached great importance to early education, advocated public preschool education, valued women's education, advocated equality between men and women, and advocated the harmonious development of morality, intelligence, body, and beauty. However, he believed that children's game stories and singing content must be carefully selected and strictly conducted. The principle of censorship is that it must be in line with the interests of the ruling class, and it ignores the development of children's individuality and independent personality. His ideas about the social ownership of women and children are contrary to social ethics and should be criticized.
Plato’s educational thoughts are closely integrated with his thoughts on human nature. He believed that God created humans into three categories: gold, silver and iron. He believed that "whichever type a person belongs to, the children he gives birth to will belong to that type." [2] The essence of his view of genetic determinism is to demonstrate the rationality of class rule in slave society.
Plato’s education was designed to counter the centrifugal force that the education of the wise had on the city-state. For Plato, education is not about cultivating musical agility and physical dexterity in children in the traditional sense, nor is it about cultivating political and practical wisdom through human life reflected in myth and poetry. , it is the shaping of the inner harmony of a person's soul, that is, the coordination of the disharmonious factors inherent in the person. Education is the unity of things that are difficult to reconcile in humans - the beastly nature and the angelic nature. The purpose of education is to form this unity, so that people will neither become a docile sheep (slave) nor a greedy wolf (tyrant). [3] Man's potential to become a political being depends on the unity of this philosophical and martial nature in him. Therefore, education is not the cultivation of certain skills, but the unity of power and love of knowledge.