LIBERAL EDUCAr!'ION IN PLATO'S REPUBLIC/ AND ARIS~I'OTLE'S P()UTICS

Andrea Wilson Nightingale

In this paper, I want to examine the educational systems that Plato and Aristotle designed for the ~~good'~ cities discussed in the Republic and Politics. In these texts, Plato and Aristotle set forth a paideia that is designed for a specific polueio: an educational system that will train "liberal" and "free" individuals who can serve as a virtuous gov­ erning body. Both philosophers are setting forth an ideal rather than describing existing educational programmes or even the education that each offered in his own school. 1 I will therefore not discuss the institutions of the Academy or Lyceum, or the curricula that were used in these schools. Rather, I will foc-us on Plato and Aristotle's detailed descriptions of the education that will produce "truly" free individuals who can rule in the "good" city. In particular, I will address the following questions: How do these educational pro­ grammes differ from traditional Greek pedagogy? What kinds of free­ dom does the "liberal" education aim to produce, and how does this frecdorn enable the students to become good citizens and rulers? What arc the ideological underpinnings of the liberal education as these philosophers conceive it? I have chosen to focus on Plato and Aristotle's discussions of edu­ cation in the Republic and Politics because these are the first extant accounts of liberal education in ancient Greece and thus may be seen as foundational discourses for the institution of humanistic study ill the West. To be sure, the notion of the "liberal education" was already under discussion among Athenian intellectuals in the late fifth century. 2 But the fourth... century writers Plato and Aristotle offer accounts that arc far more clearly conceptualized and articulated than t.hose of their predecessors. As we will see, some of Plato a.nd

I On Plato's Academy and its curriculum, sec Field (1930) ch. 3; Jaeger (1943, vol. 2) 305" v ~9 and passim; Marrou (1964) 102----'4. On Aristotle's school, see Lynch (1972). 2 'Raaflaub (1983). 134 ANDREA WILSON NIGH'TINGALE

Aristotle's most basic principles continue to inform our modern notions of the "liberal education." A careful examination of their accounts of education will contribute to our ongoing' efforts to conceive and reconceive the field of humanistic or "liberal" studies in the early twenty-first century.

I

Before turning t.o .Pla t.o and Aristotle, I want to discuss the ancient notion of the "illiberal" or (as they are often called) the "banausic" arts, since it is in opposition to these arts and activities that the "lib­ eral" education was shaped and defined. Although the word "illib... eral' (aneleutherios) is readily understood as designating' any person or activity that is "unfree," the term "banausic" (banausos) is more difficult to apprehend, Yet these two 'words are regularly linked together by fourth-century writers and even used as virtual synorlynls. English translators (including 'Liddell and Scott) often render tile word (-; banau­ sos" as "mechanic' or "base mechanic." Unfortunately, the word "mechanic" designates something very different from the "banausic" worker, and thus serves to obscure the true sense of "banausos" and

'"~ banausia," III the most general terms, H banausoi" is the label for peo­ ple who earn a living by plying a trade or craft that involves the use of the hands, The word "artisan" (in its broadest sense) is morc accurate than "mechanic," though even this term is too limited. It is important to emphasize that the term "banausos' generally carries a pej orative sense, since it marks a person as mercantile and servile." III fact, the term is virtually rnonopolized by aristocratic writers, and it therefore carries with it the perspective and prejudices of the leisured elite." A few examples from fourth-century w-riters will illustrate these

3 As Whitehead (1977) 119 rightly observes, "the l: dcfinition} of a banausos ... can only be articulated by someone outside banauaia," i.c. by the leisured and aristo.. cratic elite. On Greek attitudes towards labor and laborers, see C;lotz (1987) 160--167; Vernant (1983) chs. 10···-11; Masse (1969) ch. 2; Burford (1972) 25-6 and 184 '_"213, and (1993) eh. 5; Rossler (i 981); Ste. (]roix (198 1) 179······204; and \'\Tood (1989) 137-··.. 145. 1, For a useful survey of the notion of bonausia in the fifth and fourth centuries .B(;.~ see Rossler (1981) 203-43. See also Nightingale (1995) 55····.,9 and (1996) 29-34, esp. 30 n. 3.