On Plato's Educational Thoughts In "Utopia"

Plato's ideal city-state can be said to be an ideal city-state of education,education is to guide the people of the city-state,and the existence of the city-state government is also for education.Primary education in the republic promotes soul harmony,higher education promotes soul upward,and the overall happiness of the city-state is realized by a real philosopher as ruler.But what is a true philosopher? How to cultivate real philosophers? Are trained philosophers willing to return to the city-state? This constitutes the dilemma that education faces again.The main frame of this paper is composed of three parts.The first part discusses the elementary education stage,mainly discusses how to educate guardians in the process of constructing just city-state.On the basis of criticizing the traditional Greek education,that is,the education of poetry,Plato depicted what kind of content should be used to educate children and citizens,and expressed his views on god and poetry.It is advocated to cultivate the moral character of citizens through music and physical education.Music education pays attention to the cultivation of the soul,while physical education pays attention to the physical exercise,which also plays a role in shaping the soul.The second part mainly discusses the stage of higher education,how to select and cultivate a small number of political elites,which involves mathematics education and philosophy education.Plato believed that mathematical knowledge not only involves real knowledge,but also can improve the purity of people's hearts;The final goal of philosophy education is to cultivate a few philosopher king,so as to construct an ideal city-state.The third part,based on the above two chapters,discusses Plato's views on the function and purpose of education,as well as the question he faced: is philosopher king possible?...