PLATO (427b.c-347 b.c)

PLATO (427b.c-347 b.c)

a.   Life sketch.

Plato was born in Athens.he was a scholar as well as a sports man. He was a discipline of Socrates for nearly ten years. It is strange to find an aristocrat like plato learning at the feet of Socrates who was a poor sculptor’s son. Socrates death made him go out of Greece and wander in different countries. He came book to Greece at the age of 40 and opened a school called ‘Academy’. Provision was made in the Academy for the study of all subjects that would make one a good citizen.

b.    Main publications.

The Republic, the Laws, Protagoras and symposium are his famous works.

c.  Plato’s philosophy.

Plato can be called an idealist as he regardeddeas as real. He belived in the world of  ideas and not in the world of objects and senses. The world of  ideas was considered eternal and unbainded. A world of  mind and abstraction. The world of objects was considered by plato to be quite transitory A world of unreal shadows.

d. Educational philosophy.

Education should aim at  the achievement of the absolutes beauty goodness and truth. It should give to the body and soul all the perfection to which they are susceptible. In the Republic he describes an  Ideal state that maintains ‘ social Justice’ The citizens of  this state belong to three classes, viz administrators, soldiers and farmers. The first two should be given education, the third one need no education at all.

                   The aims of education are inculcation of virtue and citizenship development of the body and soul vision of truth and appreciation of  beauty Music and physical education along with Mathematics and Geometry should be included in primary school curriculum. In higher education one should get  physical education in addition to virtue and  aesthetic sense developed through the study of  Higher Mathematics, Geometry.

Astronomy  Philosophy and  music. The method of teaching suggested is presentation of the subject in an interesting manner. Importance of  play  has been recognised.

                   Plato was an aristocrat. His ideas about the Organisation of the state and of education were not democratic in nature. Many of his views are not valid today. For example, his classification of people into administrators, soldiers and farmers may be compared to the cast system that existed in India. These are not at all acceptable to modern concepts of  justice and democracy. His ideal of family is also not acceptable to many philosophers who belive in objectivity and scientific analysis. For Plato, the family is not an important factor in education as he believed in the state controlled system of education moreover shaping of the heart through art and literature was not considered by him as a function of education.

C- Academy.

The term Academy originated from the name of an olive garden called Academia, situated near the city of Athens. It is believed that this garden was owned by Academes, a hero of the Trojan war. The youths of Athens, including Plato, used to assemble in this garden daily to rare discourse with Socrates. That is why when Plato established his centre of knowledge after the death of Socrates, it was named The Academy. This may be considered as the first university of the west. Various sciences and philosophies were taught in that institution. Those learners who came out of the Academy were called Academists or Academicians. Aristotle was a student in that institution.

            Lalitha.m

Natural science