Method and Madness: Education in Plato's Republic and Aristotle's Politics

Education is a central part of the establishment and continued advancement of any government, so it rightfully commands the attention of politicians, philosophers, and citizens who seek the betterment of their own community and state to this day. The debate around the topic of education is even more heated because everyone has had some type of personal experience with it—be it through state-sponsored schooling, private education, professional training, or attaining a general understanding of the world from one's parents. With those experiences, every individual forms a view of what they themselves should have learned or skipped over, when those things should have been introduced, and whether other types of people should have a certain type of education. Two differing methods of addressing the issue of education are presented by Plato in The Republic and by his student, Aristotle, in Politics. Plato presents three types of education in The Republic: the mechanical education for each type of citizen within Socrates' republic, the process of attaining an intelligible understanding of the world for philosophers as described in part by the allegory of the cave, and the Socratic Method of circular questioning that Socrates uses throughout the conversation to persuade his interlocutors. Aristotle, by contrast, explains and utilizes just one method: the most direct and rational, both in his explanation of politics through lecture and within the text with the assessment of each situation including variables and inconsistencies that may exist within any system. Both agree that education cannot be uniform for all citizens, but their approaches and guidelines are sure to produce dramatically different results. Through one lens their proposals spell out what each believed would be the most important values to instill in their citizens in order to maintain a government, but if looking at Politics as a response to The Republic, there is another layer confusing the matter.