On Aristotle's Citizen Education

Aristotle considers the Greek society as one that is not without a common ethos and it is the national institutions that carry on the educational activities, by means of which the citizen learn how to possess the ethos. Aristotle regards that a society is a whole system of education in which every people, just by setting himself in it, can make his potentiality come to reality most amply. While, the polis is a giant educational institution which highly combines all beneficial education including religion, mythos, democracy and public opinion, and all the compulsory education and training one must get for attaining and sustaining his social status in an organized society. So education in Aristotle's vision is a social institution which can make the society agglomerate under a common spiritual essence. The quality of education is that it is of a political society, it is the education of a harmoniously integral political society. The means of education is shared by all the people and is used to adjust and mold the social institutions. The mode of education is to mold personal characteristic and intelligence through participating in public affairs.By enquiring Aristotle's theory of citizen education, this paper is supposed to enclose the essence of Aristotle's thought on this subject, to expound the background and method of his enquiry. Another discussed problem in the paper is the practical meaning of Aristotle's thought.Aristotle's thought on citizen education concerns mainly on how man can live an excellent life. The method adopted by Aristotle in this inquiry is biological and teleological method on the large part.This paper consists of four parts:The first part discusses the background of Aristotle's thought on citizen education. In this respect, this paper focuses on the social-historical background and theoretical background of Aristotle's thought. With regard to the social-historical background, I discussed the impact of spiritual world of the polis, the practice of democratic politics, mythos and religion on Aristotle's thought. While the discussion of the theoretical background of Aristotle's thought touches upon the pre-Sophists educational thought, sophists' theory on citizen education, Socrates' and Plato's thought on citizen education.The second part discusses the status of Aristotle's thought on citizen education in his whole thought. Aristotle divides knowledge into creative, theoretical and practical. Thethought on citizen education is a very important part of Aristotle's practical science, and is also a conclusion to his ethics and politics.The third, the main part of this thesis discussed Aristotle's thought on citizen education. The discussion consists of five facets: A. the object of citizen education. Aristotle holds that the object of citizen education is all male citizens. B. the end of citizen education. Aristotle holds that there are two ends of citizen education, the one is the polis with goodness as its end; the other is that citizen get virtue. C. the content of citizen education. Aristotle holds that the most important content of citizen education is virtue, the second one is law, and then sports and music. D. the form of citizen education. There are different forms. E. pre-citizen education. Aristotle does not think it sufficient just focusing on citizen education, however, a polis must put weight on infant education and juvenile education.The fourth part of this paper discusses the assessment of Aristotle's thought on citizen education. Three sub parts are involved in this part. One is how to appreciate Aristotle's citizen education. The other is the impact of Aristotle's thought on citizen education on latter European and western thoughts on citizen education. The last one is the inspiration of Aristotle's thought on citizen education to the theoretical inquiry of citizen education in contemporary China.