| Plato (427-347 B.C.) was not only a great philosopher and thinker, but also a great educator in ancient Greece. His practice and profound thoughts in education has profound impacts on education in Europe and many other countries in the whole world, and throughout the western history. To know the western culture and education, we must study Plato's thoughts of philosophy and education. Even today, his ideas of education are still enlightening. Unfortunately, in Chinese scholarship, people prefer discussing Plato's philosophical thoughts to studying his thoughts of education, leaving such studies isolated.This study will start with the historical background in Plato's time, analyzing his thoughts of education within the context of his philosophical thoughts. I will focus on its significance to our understanding of education in contemporary settings, as well as its impacts on current practice in education. The essay will include three parts:The first part is a brief introduction of the current studies of Plato's educational thoughts, and presents an outline of the study in this essay.The second part explores systematically the historical background of Plato's educational thoughts. Perhaps, we may say that Plato was born at the wrong time, during which Athens and the whole Greece were from flourishing to waning, Athen's economy went on downhill and her democracy of government fell into pieces. The whole society was in crisis, and the traditional morality and beliefs were seriously challenged. Plato followed Socrates to formulate his philosophical and educational thoughts, meanwhile he designed an education system to carry out his educational ideas. Plato hoped to build up a new ideal state through education in which the ideal personality is proposed. This idea then confronted the Homer tradition. To challenge the Homer tradition, Plato established a school of philosophy at Academy, in which he was himself the major teacher. He had spent in Academy for 41 years, making it the model of education institutes. In 377 B.C., he published the Republic, a most important "Utopia". In this book, he discusses systematically different education issues.The third part discusses the fusion of his thoughts of education and philosophy. Plato's education thoughts are based on his philosophical thoughts. To bridge them in a meaningful way will help us understand his educational thoughts correctly. Generally, Plato's philosophy can be conceived in three stages: early works, mid works and late works. The early works mainly present a Socrates image, which tries to understand virtues in terms of individual morality. The mid works indicate that Plato reached his maturation, in which Plato changed direction in light of his own philosophical problems, developing his own epistemology, ontology, dialectics, and political theory. The late works become more critical, reexamining and supplementing his thoughts present in his mid works. These expounded the main contents of Plato's educational thoughts based on his philosophy, such as the theory of ideas and education; the materialist factor in his philosophy and his education method; the theory of recollection and learning, the intellect obstetrics and teaching methods. They are all important for us to understand Plato's philosophy and education. Plato's dialectics has a profound impact on his educational thoughts.Then, we will discuss the significance and inspiration of Plato's educational thoughts. Plato emphasized that education should be lifelong endeavors. Such an emphasis is applicable to us. First of all, Plato called on to pursue "good" in education. Secondly, his educational thoughts are value oriented. He paid attention to the balance development of morality, intelligence, and physical fitness in education. Finally, we have to say that his educational thought is a rational approach to education, beneficial to education in ancient world and helpful to our understanding of and research in education, particularly it provides some good insights and references for our current education reforms. |
