LIBERAL EDUCATION IN PLATO'S REPUBLIC AND ARISTOTLE'S POLITICS

Andrea \!\Tilson 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 politeia: 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 focus 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 freedom 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 Republ£c 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 in 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 are far more clearly conceptualized and articulated than those of their predecessors. As we will see, some of Plato and

1 On Plato's Academy and its curriculum, see Field (1930) ch. 3; .Jaeger (1943, vol. 2) 305 ··9 and passim; Marrou (1964) 102· 4. On Aristotle's school, see Lynch (! 972). 2 Raaflaub (1983). 134 ANDREA WILSON NIGHTINGALE

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

I

Before turning to Plato and Aristotle, I want to discuss the ancient notion of the "illiberal" or (as they arc 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 "unfrec/' 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 synonyms. English translators (including Liddell and Scott) often render the word "hanau­ 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." In the most general terms, "hanausoz"' 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 more accurate than "mechanic," though even this term is too limited. It is important to emphasize that the term "banausos" generally carries a pejorative sense, since it marks a person as mercantile and servile.3 In fact, the term is virtually monopolized by aristocratic writers, and it therefore carries with it the perspective and prejudices of the leisured elite. 4 A few examples from fourth-century writers will illustrate these

3 As vVhitehead (1977) 11 9 rightly observes, "the 'definition' of a banausos ... can only be articulated by someone outside banausia," i.e. by the leisured and aristo­ cratic elite. On Greek attitudes towards labor and laborers, see Glot-z (1987) 160-- 167; Vemant (1983) chs. 10··- l l; Mosse (1969) ch. 2; Burford (1972) 25-6 and 184- 218, and (1993) ch. 5; Ri:issler (l98l ); Ste. Croix (1981) 179-- 204; and \Voocl (1989) 13i···-145. 1 For a useful survey of the notion of banausia in tJ1e fifth and fourth centuries BC, see Rtissler (1981) 203-43. See also Nightingale (1995) 55 ·9 and (1996) 29-34, esp. 30 n. 3.