The Old World Concepts of Virtue Versus the Modern Essay

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Platos views on education are seldom accepted today, while Dewys are the philosophical foundation for much of what goes on in schools. Explain why this is the case.

Dewey's approach towards education is based on the scientific method that grew out of the Renaissance and the Age of Enlightenment. It, in effect, builds on the theory of William of Occam, who denied the existence of universals (Weaver, 1984). Thus, Dewey and the rest of modern educators tend towards an emphasis on empiricism and "facts," whereas Plato emphasizes the existence of universals and how true knowledge and true virtue is bound up in the understanding of these universals. As Plato shows in Phaedrus, for instance, "a man must have intelligence of universals, and be able to proceed from the many particulars of sense to one conception of reason; -- this is the recollection of those things which our soul once saw while following God -- when regardless of that which we now call being she raised her head up towards the true being" (p. 417-418). There is implicit in this assertion the sense that God is the source of all things and that no knowledge is worth having if it does not join one, ultimately, to God or give one the so-called beatific vision. For Dewey and the Enlightenment thinkers, empirical science to a large degree displaced any notion of God being responsible for reality, as education tended to focus on what could be "proved" and not what could be "intuited" or "recollected" as Socrates/Plato preferred to say.

Thus for Plato the intelligence and the life of the soul are intimately united and a human soul is human precisely because it has intelligence of the universals inside it (animals do not). This sort of philosophical outlook was held by the medieval Catholic/Christian world as well -- but with the Protestant Reformation, a substantial break with the past and the Old World and all its emphasis on scholasticism (like the work of Aquinas) was effected and the new modern world and its educators (like Dewey) with their emphasis on "nature" as good (a concept of Rousseau in The Social Contract -- "Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains" (p. 1) an allusion to the chains of the Old World's concept of "fallen nature") set about codifying a new way to "know" the world -- without having to discuss God, a subject that had caused considerable tension in Europe for many years. Nonetheless, for Plato, God is essential. In Phaedrus, God is what Socrates calls "the true being" from which all knowledge and intelligence comes; souls that have not seen God before do not "pass into the human form" -- for God does not place a "soul which has never seen the truth" into the body of a man (p. 417). Thus, when a man recognizes truth on earth, he is simply recollecting in his soul what it has seen before -- namely that all things (the particulars) have one reason (or cause), which is God. This sort of assertion would make modern educators in the era of political correctness very uncomfortable, so it is disregarded for someone less "offensive" and controversial, like Dewey.

2. Specify and discuss two of Plato's ideas that led him to hate democracy.

Plato's insistence upon an objective reality with an objective truth that was transcendental and to which man had to submit and not it submit to man was one major idea that led him to hate democracy (because democracy does not put this objective truth at the top -- as a philosopher-king would -- but rather it puts the "majority" vote at the top, and in most cases it is not even the majority of the public but only the majority of the public that votes). Thus, in Euthyphro, Plato voices his idea regarding this demand for objective truth. Euthyphro imagines he is in the "right" when he prosecutes his father for wrongdoing. But Socrates asks Euthyphro what piety is (what is pleasing to the gods) and Euthyphro can only give a subjective answer -- piety is that which he is doing. Socrates essentially says (in subtle mockery) that whatever Euthyphro does is good and therefore we should all imitate Euthyphro, and Euthyphro sees the absurdity of this logic and has to rethink his answer. But rather than admit that he may be wrong in prosecuting his father, he chooses to not face the question and rushes off, secure in his ignorance and subjectivity.

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Socrates meanwhile insists on an objective standard, a universal law that applies to everyone -- not one law for Euthyphro, one law for Socrates, with the individual determining what is right or wrong. Socrates says that in such cases the individual sets himself up as judge, when in reality the true judge is God for God alone is above everything and indeed the writer of the truth which is written in men's hearts (Plato, Euthyphro; Plato, Apology).

Another idea that sets Plato on a path towards rejecting democracy is the Allegory of the Cave, found in The Republic, which Plato uses to illustrate how most people in a society are like prisoners in a cave who do not understand themselves or the world around them, let alone anything of the transcendental truths (universals). Thus, when one breaks free of the cave and sees the sun and climbs the mountain of truth and wisdom to the sun, he becomes much more capable of leading than those many people in the cave who would otherwise be given a "vote" in the shaping of government and society when they are really no better than ignorant slaves who have no sense objective truth. In this way, Plato affirms the idea that the best person to govern and lead is the man who climbs the mountain of truth: he is the philosopher-king. The worst way to govern is to hand the kingdom over to the individuals still locked away in the cave thinking shadows on the wall are the reality. They would be the "majority" voters in democracy. That is a way of government that is disrespectful to God and the truth because it neglects both. Therefore, this is the other main idea that compels Plato to reject democracy (Plato, The Republic).

3. Aristotle and his "Ethics" claims that all things have a natural purpose and that in fulfilling this natural purpose, the fullest realization tot the object is achieved. Specify and discuss Aristotle's view of what the purpose of a human being is.

The purpose of a human being is to achieve happiness or what Aristotle calls Eudaimonia. But Aristotle does not define happiness as a feeling or something that can be satisfied through physical pleasure or materialistic gain. For him, happiness is located in the attainment of the good -- that which man is made to seek and obtain. To perform one's function to the best of one's ability is be happy. The function or purpose of man is to reason well, or to act according to reason -- and since reason dictates that man should adhere to a life of virtue, happiness is located in virtuous living. The argument is similar to that of Plato and Socrates -- namely, that man is made to enjoy the beatific vision by cleaving to the highest principles of goodness, truth and virtue in his life and constantly engaging in the act or practice of reflection so as to always keep this aim in the foremost of one's mind and daily life.

Therefore, for Aristotle, it is not just a matter of knowing virtue intellectually. It is also a matter of practicing it in his life and avoiding the state of akrasia, or softness, which makes a man neither virtuous or vicious -- but lukewarm and indifferent, even though intellectually speaking he might know the way to be virtuous (his weakness of will simply does not allow him to act on this knowledge).

Likewise, one does not have to wait for a man to be dead before he can be called happy, as Solon argued. Aristotle asserts that a man may be called happy based on his actions. A virtuous man will be happy in his everyday life because he inhabits the realm in which man is meant to inhabit -- the realm of the spiritual good, where transcendent virtue is exercised in real life and not merely possessed in the mind.

Thus, to be happy, man must exercise reason over his passions, appetite and soul. Reason is the guide, the safety belt, the breaks, the steering, the GPS, the traffic circle, the road itself. The destination is the highway of virtue, which leads to the sublime, or the ultimate cause of life, which is goodness itself, or God. In this sense, the virtuous man will be happy because he is moving towards God, just as Plato argues in his Allegory of the Cave, that the man who leaves behind illusions and enlightens his understanding….....

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