education and the political agent’s ability to judge

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    Becklund 1

    Jeffrey Becklund

    Dr. Brendan OByrne

    Senior Thesis

    19 April 2010

    Education and the Political Agents Ability to Judge

    Education of the citizenry has been a priority for most developed nations, from

    ancient to contemporary times. Looking at Plato and John Dewey as extreme examples, it

    is my aim to demonstrate how each philosophy defines the structure of a nation by

    developing a citizens ability to make sound political judgments via that nations

    education process.

    For Plato, who is critical of the democracy,1

    the education will eventually

    distinguish a single rulerthe hypothetical philosopher kingwho will be defined by his

    ability to distinguish doxa, that which seems, from episteme, that which is. Only a select

    few, those who are capable of developing this skill, will become guardians of the polis,

    and only one, the best suited among them, will be fit to rule. In this sense, Platos

    education exists to turn the philosophers mind and soul toward the citys need for just

    decision making, allowing those who are equipped to face the nature of political burdens

    they must meet. This is accomplished in terms of Platos students ability to apprehend

    the Goodthe ethical standard and source of truth which manifests within the variables

    of any choice.

    Dewey, on the other hand, understands education as the process which enhances

    any citizen's particular ability to continue learning. This is the act of restructuring the

    1 Although Plato and Dewey are working with slightly different definitions of democracy, Plato claims this

    governments unilateral freedom will result in chaos, as not all citizens are equally equipped to make good

    judgments which are capable of embodying an essentially just state.

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    identifications which people make in relation to their experiences. Learning is the process

    which continually enhances a persons understanding of their environment and social

    groups, and the process of perpetually discovering new ways to ensure the continuity of

    growth. This allows each citizen to actively define the democracy which they live

    withina system of government which Western nations have not been capable of

    actualizing in its most fundamental form. A true democracy, for Dewey, will require that

    each citizen is capable and willing to fulfill their role as active and cooperative leaders

    within the national communitya process which requires more than a citizens passive

    consent, or willingness to be represented. In order to avoid placing excess power in the

    hands of select decision makers, which will result in widespread inequity and political

    injustice, citizens must learn to learn and work dynamically, actively defining their own

    nation in every way they can. This will require that each individual has the ability to

    reconsider, or immediately re-learn, the way in which he knows a thing. In this sense,

    each citizens ability to make sound democratic judgments from day to day is determined

    by his potential for learning, capacity to identify with other citizens, and power to adapt

    their decision making faculties within a new environment.

    The fundamental difference between these theorieswhat makes either notion so

    extreme, and what sets them so far apartis either philosophers opinion regarding

    human nature. Given power, and the freedom to use it, will human beings simply act to

    fulfill their own interests, or work toward what is collectively good for the nation as a

    whole? Plato provides an argument which is highly skeptical of human beings en masse

    and the nations communal ability to sustain itselfto do what eventually is in its own

    interest. Likewise, he believes that individuals who are not naturally fit to understand the

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    Good will misuse political power in the interest of accumulating pleasures and amassing

    whatseems good for themselves. The result is that Platos city can only best be ruled by a

    philosopher with the ability to discern that which is just, and who is willing to deny

    themselves the endless and destructive pleasures which become available to those with

    such enormous power. Dewey, quite contrarily, believes that human beings are

    fundamentally good, to an extreme. Given that each citizens learning abilities are

    properly developed, he believes that they will work cumulatively and harmoniously

    becoming a complex network of cooperative social groups which utilize each individual's

    skills as a learner, further defining a democracy which its citizens are endlessly learning

    to exemplify.

    It is not my intention to show that either Plato or Deweys philosophy is more

    effective, better equipped, or superior to the other, as I believe each is particularly suited

    to fit its time period and political context. Instead, I am able to demonstrate how a

    common essence of education has been identified in both cases. While political ideals and

    subsequent conceptions of education have changed with circumstance, the outcome has

    remained the same: the student-citizens ability to judge.

    Platos judgment: the just decision

    Platos aim in education is to create a ruler who can make just decisions for the

    polis, not only in the interest of the citys security, economic and social stability, etc., but

    because Plato believes that the notion of justice, in whatever form it takes, is desirable

    simply for its own sake [358a]. In this sense, the ruler who is the product of Platos

    education is the individual best suited to create and maintain a city which is modeled

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    after a divine image, a notion which is highly desirable within its own terms. Plato is

    therefore faced with developing a notion of justice which will be compatible with an

    education of the Goodan ethical standard which, when applied, will represent more

    than the subjective pleasantness or pain associated with particular judgments.

    Specifically, it is the challenge issued to Socrates by Adeimantus and Glaucon in book II,

    which helps Plato clarify that justice is an objective quality which can be understood as

    more than an outcome which changes from case to case. This is also the stage upon

    which he introduces the method of his educationhow the philosopher student will go

    about seeking justice for the polis. This is how Platos education develops the ability to

    differentiate between a decision which concerns what seems just vs. what seems unjust,

    from an individuals point of view, and a decision which is made either in light of, or

    contrary to what is actually just or unjust, in the divine, or metaphysically true sense.

    Glaucon begins with a definition of justice which ignores the possibility for a

    single objective standard of ethical considerationthe idea that to experience

    wrongdoing, pain, or injury, is to experience injustice; while the individual who stands to

    benefit, even if at the expense of another party, is experiencing justice [358e]. This is

    Glaucons recapitulation of the Thrasymachan notion of legal positivismthe idea that a

    political agents action is just when that agent acts in the preservation of its own power

    [338c]. This implies that justice can be applied beyond the individual, and that it is also a

    constituent property of the city itself [435b]. Glaucons first definition of justice,

    therefore becomes Platos notion of what is most commonly accepted by the general

    citizenrya sort of ethical status quo, and backdrop against which his idea of the Good is

    formed. This also represents the general perspective of prisoners in the cave simile, and

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    the general notion of justice which the philosopher turned politician must work to

    counteract.

    This, along with Glaucons second conception, which posits the notion of justice

    as being only compulsorily worthwhilethat the only good reason to avoid injustice is to

    avoid being caught and punished [360c], is set in contrast to the third, which is the notion

    developed via Platospaedia: In the scenario that a seemingly just but utterly unjust man

    cheats his way through a long life of praise and pleasure, while a totally just but seemly

    unjust man is put to death after a short life of squalor and pain, Plato implies that the

    second man might somehow have lived a better lifethat in order to understand the

    nature of justice, a person must somehow distinguish between what seems to be, and

    what actually is unjust or just [362a]. It is this distinction which the philosopher student

    will explore, and which differentiates between the apparent world of illusion and the

    more elusive, but ever-present form of the Good.

    This idea is elaborated upon, and distinguished to a greater level of detail in book

    VII, as Socrates and Adeimantus arrive at a definition of what is just, as any instance of a

    thing which best coheres to its divine form, or ultimate nature of that thing [501b].

    Therefore, a good judgment is one which results in a thing being made to best represent

    its form. This, of course, requires that Plato sketch the characteristics of a philosopher

    who is capable of understanding these forms as well as the immediate worlds imperfect

    relationship with those forms, and who is best fit to define a nation which does justice to

    itself.

    This entails a consideration of the education which is capable of producing such a

    person. Because Socrates and the dialecticians are able to agree upon a definition of the

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    philosopher as the person who loves and is devoted to knowing the whole truth about a

    given thing [475e], they are able to conclude that someone who is so passionate about

    getting in touch with the true nature of reality will naturally develop a faculty for

    determining that reality. This is the philosophers capability for distinguishing between

    incomplete particular examples of a truth, and complete truth-ideas or forms of things. A

    form represents the whole nature of something when that thing or quality is present in

    every instance or manifestation of that thing in the immediately occurring world [490b].

    Once again, Plato presents his reader with a distinction between doxa, what seems, and

    episteme, what is knowable. In this case, the distinction is more than an insight into the

    definition of a single term, but the fundamental structure of Platos theory of knowledge,

    which embodies the basis of the philosophers education. This is the divine structure or

    blueprint [500e] which eventually leads the philosopher to conceive of justice as more

    than instances of benefit or harm as experienced by particular subjects. Instead, a nation,

    for the philosopher, is just or unjust in the sense that its decisions represent an

    ontologically grounded notion of reality, which become illuminated to the philosopher in

    light of the Good.

    But what is the nature of the philosopher students motivation for turning from the

    realm of illusion toward the Good? If Adiemantus and Glaucon are to accept this

    definition of a philosopher, a clearer notion of what it means to experience love of

    knowledge must be explained. For Plato, any human motivation is the result of erotic

    identification, a distinctively human faculty which generates affinity toward things. This

    creates a simulated kind of optimism, the extent of which is particular each individual in

    the case of each entity they become acquainted with. Socrates describes the notion of

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    Platonic love as the state of seeing something as praiseworthy as a whole, in all of its

    arrangements [474c]a persons inclination to only see the good aspects about that

    thing. While each student begins life with, and develops different sorts of desires, the

    philosopher students desire has become especially oriented toward the truth. This is what

    will eventually perpetuate their willingness to learn, especially as more formal education

    practices begins.

    It is important to note that Plato understands the nature of this education as a

    process which, from the beginning of a students life, cannot simply be reduced to the

    forceful introduction of knowledge, or skill sets, into the mind, as if the mind were an

    empty container waiting to be filled. The actual learning act, for Plato, does not occur

    between the student and an educator, but between the soul and its exposure to the Good.

    In this sense, a students mechanism for learning the standard of reality upon which

    sound judgments can be made, is more than a process of the intellect alone. An

    individuals soul-type2

    defines the extent to which that student will be capable of

    appreciating the meaning and utility of truth as his minds rational capabilities matures.

    Socrates describes this metaphorically in terms of the cave simile, qualifying the

    education process effectiveness in terms of the students innate capacity or willingness

    to see and understand the source of truth, given that they have an opportunity to be turned

    toward the Good [518c]. The Goodthe end of all endeavor, the object on which every

    heart is set [505e], in this sense, becomes the ultimate intellectual, spiritual, and physical

    destination toward which the calculating mind, the understanding soul, and the physical

    body, must be exposed. Each individual, like seeds of different qualities, will thus have

    2 In the foundation myth [414d-415c], Socrates metaphorically proposes the arrangement of citizens into a

    three tiered class system, based upon their soul-type, or inborn ability to rule.

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    different potentials to grow toward the sun. It is the education, therefore, which will

    provide each type with correspondingly appropriate qualities of soil in which to root.

    Once the philosopher student has seen and understood the nature of the Good, and

    has developed their ability to decide between instances of reality and illusion; once the

    philosopher is capable of just decision making, and is fit to rule; how does Plato account

    for the individuals ability to choose between leadership and a life of academic pleasure?

    Having reached the outside of the cave, the philosopher will remember that his fellow

    prisoners who remain below are committed to the idea that justice is nothing more than

    what benefits a given subject, and that the Thrasymachan notion of justice still prevails.

    Given that the philosopher chooses to descend back down into the cave in order to

    educate or rule, to help another soul become exposed to the vision they have had or

    restructure the way life in the cave is governed so that it best reflects the real world they

    have seen, there are several mortal dangers they will face. Within the actual world, Plato

    predicts that Socrates philosopher student turned ruler may very well appear to be an

    overly idealistic fool upon the stage of politics. Given that the prospective philosopher

    ruler is vastly outnumbered, and will potentially be overpowered by the frightened

    masses who have no wish to change their ways [517a], there is little guarantee that the

    philosophers just intentions will guarantee their safety or success. Plato also takes into

    account the risks incurred by other politicians who lack an understanding of the Good

    the puppet-masters or illusion makers who captivate the prisoners with shadows and

    illusory images [514b]. Given that the philosopher student turned philosopher ruler

    attempts to extricate those who are doing an inferior job, there is a good chance they will

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    be destroyed by reasonless autocrats, hungry to consume anyones power, and unwilling

    to relinquish their posts.

    Plato contends that the same sense in which that the philosopher was motivated to

    leave the cave in the first place (going through the difficult transition from darkness into

    light), the notion of Platonic love, will eventually encourage those who are just to

    abandon their enlightened yet selfish existence outside the cave. Instead of simply

    relishing in the pleasures of knowledge and reality [519c] outside the cave, within the

    realm of truth, the philosopher who is truly fit to rule will sacrifice their own desires by

    leading the nation of prisoners, and the nation itself, closer toward its divine form. The

    true philosophers choice, in this sense, is itself only an illusion of choiceif the

    philosopher did not carry out the action which was just, they would betray the nature of

    what is right, which they professed to embody and identify as the object of their love. By

    this same logic, the true philosopher could never truly assent to be ruled by the non-

    philosopher, as doing so would go against the divine nature of truth as manifest by

    humans in the world, and negate the very thing which they claim to be.

    Dewey and education as perpetual growth

    Over the course of several thousand years, the nature of the society in which a

    philosophy of education is made to functionthe values and belief systems which are

    central to that societywill have changed. These radically different conceptions of what

    it means to learn, can thus be understood in terms of their different socio-political

    contexts. Even for a highly un-Platonic philosophy such as Deweys, which is grounded

    in the idea that each individuals learning process can develop exponentially in order to

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    sustain a healthy democracy, the education is a process which is fundamentally geared

    toward creating citizens capable of the judgments which will sustain that democracy. The

    reason why learners who are capable of perpetual growth via Deweys ongoing learning

    process can make the decisions which the real democracy requires of its active citizens, is

    their dynamic ability to adapt and learn what is required of them in any situationto

    identify with a new problem, a new setting, or another social group, in order to discover

    or experience a new solution.

    A major way in which this differs from what Plato had in mind has to do with

    Deweys background as a radical liberal humanist. Although enlightenment philosophers

    such as John Locke were not the first to introduce ideas concerning an individual

    humans intrinsic value or natural rights, they played a significant role in popularizing

    these notions within European and early American social and political environments

    during the late 17th

    and 18th

    century. For instance, Lockes idea that the a governments

    central purpose concerns the preservation of certain human rights which all people are

    naturally entitled to, conflicts with Platos belief that human soul-types distinctly specify

    an individuals potential, and thus the political representation they are entitled to. In this

    sense, the value of each individual within a society is central to Lockes political

    philosophy, and entails the notion that government is only legitimate in the instance that

    every citizen has given their consent to be governed. This is the idea that because human

    beings are created equal, that the structure of the nation must be subsequently and

    equitably defined by each individual. Other philosophers such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau

    and Thomas Pane also contributed to Lockes notion of democratic equality, in this way.

    This, in combination with German enlightenment philosophers such as Kant and Hegel,

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    who suggest that the chief function of a state is educational in nature (Dewey 96, 1916),

    eventually contributes to Deweys notion of a democracy as the government which is

    defined by the extent to which it provides educational freedom, and each citizens ability

    to learn:

    A society which makes provision for participation in its good of all its

    members on equal terms which secures flexible readjustment of its

    institutions through interaction of the different forms of associated life

    is in so far democratic. (Dewey 99, 1916)

    Deweys inquiry into education is based upon the idea that It is the nature of

    human life to strive to continue in being (Dewey 9, 1916). This is perhaps Deweys

    most basic claim concerning educationthat learning is not supplemental to or

    differentiated form our regular lives. It is Deweys goal to posit that an education is not

    simply something which only occurs within a classroom or as a product of

    institutionalized instruction, but that it is a kind of experience which is persistently

    present in any human activities which in some way involves one generations life as a

    dynamic translation into the next. In other words, education is the very essence of

    humanitys continuous effort to sustain itself, and eventually replace itself with equal or

    greater instances of life. This represents the ongoing and unending learning act.

    Because this process of learning as human continuity on a global scale requires

    groups of people, working and learning how to best perpetuate themselves, together, it is

    no surprise that the classroom in which Deweys education occurs is the phenomenon

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    known as the human social group. Education, for Dewey, is a process by which social

    groups maintain their continuous existence (Dewey 321, 1916) by learning from, and

    identifying with each others experiences. Because multiple subjects will often undergo

    similar learning processes within a shared environment, if two subjects recognize and

    understand that they have both identified with the same learning experience, they have

    gained what Dewey refers to as mutual intelligibility (Dewey 15, 1916)an exchange of

    meaning through experience which forms the basis of, or potential for cooperation within

    a social group. As identifications of this sort continue forming, increasingly complicated

    networks of social understanding begins to form, eventually developing and defining the

    moral and functional standards of a democracy. Because the role of each individual, as a

    learner, within the greater social network is as imperative as any other, democracy is the

    only form of government which provides freedom to the extent which is necessary. This

    allows for each individual to collectively define the nations greater whole (Dewey 87,

    1916). Deweys idyllic democracy, therefore, occurs when each citizen, as part of a large-

    scale social community, actively participates in all activities which effect the lives of

    others within that social community (Pring 118).

    In contrast to Platos notion that the training of guardians, specifically the

    philosopher king, is a static kind of aim which Platos education is looking to achieve, it

    is important to discern that this notion of a standard aim is incompatible with Deweys

    philosophy of education, as it suggests that a subjects learning process has some fixed

    end point, or limit, which the continuity of human life could feasibly exist beyond. In this

    sense, Deweys conception of learning, or the perpetual education, must be distinguished

    from that which is simply a result. For Dewey, a good aim surveys the present state of

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    experience of pupils, and [embodies] a tentative plan of treatment, keeps the plan

    constantly in view and yet modifies it as conditions develop (Dewey 105, 1916). In this

    sense, an aim, or perhaps more accurately, the ongoing plan for education is not a single

    act with a single outcome, but a specific yet malleable philosophy of learning which

    needs to be adapted as its context and constituents change over time. This ongoing

    education plan is composed of, and not to be confused with, the particular motivations

    which seek individual results from experience to experience. Dewey stresses that while

    each of these motivations and results embodies an instance of experimentation which

    eventually becomes part of the learning process, that they do not achieve the status of

    conclusions, and merely represent effects. In the same sense, a results motivation is not

    equivalent to the question which has initially caused such a motivation (Dewey 101,

    1916). In other words, in order to account for meaning which is gleaned from a series of

    experiences, there must be a larger body of theory which can account for the fact that a

    transformation of the student has occurred (Dewey 42, 1916). Therefore, an ongoing and

    dynamic educationrather than isolated motivations and results must be supposed.

    This sort of tentative plan for learning will provide the potential for further

    learning experiences given that a few constituents are met. Firstly, Dewey believes that a

    good education cannot be planned outside the bounds of intelligent reasoningthat an

    educator, or individual who is considering the future of an education, must be able to

    rationally consider the nature of the context and environment in which the education will

    take place. If a plan for learning extends beyond what a student is able to visualize, or if

    the components of a plan are subject to terms which cannot possibly be known at a given

    time, then there is no intelligible reason why these factors should affect a modification of

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    the current experience (Dewey 104, 1916). In this sense, an educator or self-educators

    notion of hypothetical factors should not weigh in too heavily upon the methods which

    re-define the ways we learn. While foresight, to a limited extent can help avoid

    consequences which will hinder the education process, the educators primary attention

    must remain centered around the learners intrinsic activities and needs (Dewey 108,

    1916) at the time of the immediate experience.

    Therefore, a Platonic education which aims to turn the student toward vision of

    the Gooda universal ethical and metaphysical standardis for Dewey an extremely

    limiting idea. Besides suggesting that this represents a distinct goal at which point the

    students learning-growth process might end, Dewey would suggest that a concept such

    as the Good is too abstract. If the subject matter of what a student is trying to learn

    extends beyond the immediate context of their experience, Dewey believes that the

    student will become disconnected with the learning processwill be overly concerned

    with some distant end instead of identifying with new method and horizon ofhow they

    plan to learn (Dewey 109, 1916).

    While Dewey has redefined the way a student learns to make political choices, so

    that it corresponds to the values and characteristics of their nation, the ability to make

    such a decisioneither in Deweys democracy or Platos Kallipolisremains essentially

    the outcome in either case. Thus, the differences between either philosophy of education

    can be reduced to differences between the types of nations which the citizens ability to

    choose is required to define. Instead of learning how to distinguish between what is just

    and unjusta notion which Dewey thinks is based upon a distant and detrimentally

    abstract notion of the Goodlearning citizens will constantly discover new methods to

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    adapt their experience, and plan for future experiences in relation to the social groups

    they live within. For Dewey, this is the key to total participation in a democratic society.

    Paideias process: developing dialectic intelligence

    In order to completely understand how either Plato or Deweys philosophy of

    learning creates a students ability to make nation defining and sustaining political

    judgments, the process by which their students learnthe educations themselvesmust

    likewise be accounted for. Platos distinction that the education is a process incurred by

    the polis, and not simply a naturally occurring activity, is implied as the philosopher

    descends back into the cave. While the ideal philosopher will ultimately aspire to return

    to society and become king, contrary to what he may desire, Plato identifies another

    purpose as to why the enlightened lover of the Good must rejoin the prisoners within the

    cavethe education. Even if the philosopher in question is the best suited to lead, their

    mortality dictates that another philosopher rulerhopefully one who is equally equipped

    to discern that which is justeventually must take his place.

    In books VII and VIII, Plato faces a problem. If the standard of what is Good

    which the citys first generation of rulers will embody is to be maintained, an

    understanding of that standard must be passed on to a new generation of minds, some of

    which are also born with the ability to rule. Toward the end of the cave simile, Socrates

    identifies a second danger associated with the philosophers decent. In the same way that

    the light of truth temporarily blinds the mind of the philosopher who reaches the surface,

    the process of readjusting to the darkness ofto horaton within the cave will hinder his

    ability to teach if he descends too hastily, or attempt to completely unshackle his

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    compatriots at once [518a]. This is the idea that if educationthe turning of the students

    mind toward the lightis do be carried out properly, it must be approached with caution

    and forethought. Thus, the education is not approached simply in terms of a naturally

    occurring act, but as a profession or a technical skill [518d].

    In the same sense that the educator must work slowly to adjust themselves into the

    students world, Plato is faced with the issue of gradually weaning the students minds

    eye toward truth gradually and in stages, manifesting the maturation of the students

    intellect through physical, cultural and behavioral growth. The whole body is turned, the

    same way the mind as a whole must be turned [518c].

    Plato has Socrates equate the

    education to the turning of the entire body rather than simply the students vision, so that

    the person comes fully equippedthe entire individual working its way up with the

    mind, toward the realm of knowledge, and down again once the vision has taken place.

    This idea of harmony between a students physical and intellectual development [412a] is

    crucial. If any aspect of the philosopher becomes disconnected from the true form of a

    generally well developed human being, his identification with the Good will likewise be

    somewhat disjointed or deluded.3

    As a result, such a rulers ability to made a just

    distinction and decision based upon the form of the Good will be somewhat diminished,

    making the individual a less than ideal candidate for the job.

    What begins as a physical education in the gymnastic activitieswrestling and

    dancing which develops the body in a practical way, and the skills of combat and war

    which make use of these developments, is eventually complemented by a training in

    music, and verse which is recited to the lyre. Besides practically training the Platonic

    3 Glaucon describes an example of this in book III. While excessive emphasis on athletics (physical

    training) produces an excessively uncivilized type, / a purely literary (intellectual) training leaves a man

    indecently soft [410d].

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    student in particular skills which he will need to survive and function within the

    communityskills which will help defend the city, help citizens function socially,

    identify with the nations culture and maintain its history, etc.each of these activities

    will contribute to an early habituation of what is naturally Good about a thing (Morrow

    300). While each instance of an activity done well provides only one example or instance

    of the universal form of the Good, this process, which begins even before birth as the

    infant is rocked by its mother within the womb, will develop a natural inclination toward

    Goodness. Eventually, this ability to intuit the nature of the Good will be helpful when a

    more formal education in mathematics and the dialectic begins.

    The ability to equate one activity, skill, or virtue from another does more than

    transition the laboring classes toward their roles as merchants, tradesmen, farmers, etc.

    The philosopher rulers education considers the ability to calculate the terms of different

    things for the sake of knowledge and not [only] for commercial ends [525d], which

    equips the guardian and ruling class with an ability to reasondianoia. This is essential

    to the leader who must administrate a nation, and the strategist in war. Most importantly

    this leads the philosopher student toward dialectic skillsnoesis, which will develop his

    ability to discern the true forms of things from their appearances, and eventually forms a

    sound basis for judgment in terms of what is and is not just. This is the very apogee of the

    philosopher kings education, at which point the student masters the ability to grasp by

    pure thought what the Good is in itself [at the] summit of the intellectual realm [532b].

    Although the philosopher will continue his work as a student of the Good, grasping at the

    essential nature of things as a lifetime of discussion, argumentation, and consideration

    unfolds, enhancing his ability to make the right decisions as he is eventually inclined to

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    rule, this represents the final stage of the formal education process. While Dewey would

    argue that this implies a learning plan with a static, or result oriented aim, (the result

    being the initial dialectic vision as the minds eye first glimpses at the sun) Plato does

    not require Deweys dynamic continuum of learning acts since each citizen will not need

    to define their own role within a democracy. Therefore, the dialectics status as a highest

    degree of [intellectual] understanding [534d] will not limit the philosopher rulers ability

    to become more aware of the true form of the Good, and its instances within world ofto

    horaton. This leads me to conclude that Platos and Deweys philosophies of education

    can simultaneously represent valid tools in developing their political agents/agents

    judgmentthe ability to assess a situation, and decide.

    Deweys schoolcommunities of shared experience

    Dewey agrees with Platos notion that that the formal act of education must

    consist of more than a transmission of skills and information from one person, or

    generation, to another (Pring 31), as if the mind was merely a receptacle for knowledge,

    which can be filled with facts or data. The traditional education, what Dewey

    describes as a series of institutionalized standards of proper conduct [and units of

    subject matter which are] handed down from the past, (Dewey 18, 1938) does not satisfy

    a students need for an experience which develops their ability to grow and successfully

    interact with more complicated experiences in the futurethe experiences which will

    define their ability to play an active role in the democracy.

    Because the traditional student is being force-fed the results of another subjects

    experience, Dewey is able to identify two reasons why this sort of education is merely a

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    way of asserting an authoritys control, and is not a process by which students are given

    genuine opportunities for learning. First of all, an education which simply asserts facts as

    right or wrong suggests that learning is a process by which the student must somehow

    motivate themselves to produce specific results, without actually considering why a given

    result is right or wrong. As I have explained already, Deweys notion of a dynamic

    learning plan consists of a students ability to conjecture appropriate questions regarding

    their experience, and propose a spectrum of possible conclusionsthe components of a

    choice. A second major flaw involves the traditional students disconnect from

    experiential learning. Because such a curriculum is imposed from above and / outside

    the student, embodying the adults knowledge and subject matter (Dewey 18-19, 1938),

    the facts and knowledge which the educator is trying to pass on represent a disconnected

    experience of a social group which the student is not a member of. Because the student

    does not understand this foreign, and possibly outdated experience, and is not allowed to

    share in that experience, the state of learning becomes one of passive submission, rather

    than a reconsideration and reorganization of the issues and challenges within their world

    (Pring 32).

    This is a fairly extreme critique of current educational institutions. Because

    Deweys notion of democracy requires that its citizens are able to organize [their]

    experiences and make connections in order to anticipate or deal with future experiences,

    (Pring 120) any nation which claims to be, or is interested in becoming a true democracy

    must fundamentally reconsider how they think about and administrate their schools. This

    is not to say that Dewey doesnt believe that a formal education is necessary. Because

    the natural or native impulses of the young do not agree with the life-customs of the

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    group into which they are born (Dewey 39, 1916), the society requires some mechanism

    to attract the young learners interest and encourage them to begin forming the

    relationships which eventually embody the democracy. For Dewey, schools are shared

    communities. Ideally, they will be designed so that the students will become optimally

    inclined to identify with one and others unique learning experiences, eventually creating

    the students first major social group at such a scale. This represents a significant step

    toward the students ongoing learning processes within larger social communities within

    which the student will eventually be required to interact, communicate, and make

    decisions or judgments.

    Therefore, it is imperative for Dewey that the school reflects the ideal

    configuration of its corresponding national democratic institution in every way possible.

    For instance, standardized testing which grades its students into classes based upon their

    ability to absorb externally determined curriculawhat too often simply evaluates a

    students ability to memorize a number of factsdiscourages the student from actively

    inquiring about their world, distracts the student from any learning experience which

    actually occurs, and puts a child at odds with their fellow students whose shared

    experiences they are meant to be identifying with. Instead of learning to cooperate and

    work in tandem with other members within a democratic society, they are conditioned

    into a state of perpetual competitiontrying to achieve a higher rather than lower social

    class rankings, or statuses (prescribed in terms of grades) rather than learning how to

    work together, and adapting each others particular skills toward the interests of the

    society at large. The same holds true for any group or function within the school which is

    meant to distinguish particular students as superior, or more qualified to represent the

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    whole; such as student government groups or class representatives, and academic

    achievement titles such as the National Honors Society students in the United States.

    Even cheerleading or sports clubs, which often, somewhat arbitrarily, designate particular

    individuals as social figureheads or standards of popularity and social success, can

    represent class-based social boundaries which limit each students ability to interact with

    other learners and share a common experience through which larger, and completely

    equitable communities will form.4

    In this sense, Deweys philosophy of education and the nation which it defines

    via the citizenrys ability to learn and decideare theoretically in harmony with one and

    other by virtue of a judgments learning-act. In this same sense, the relationship between

    Platos education of the philosopher king and the polis which he must serve, revolves

    around the judgment capabilityexpounding that which is and is not just. I will conclude

    that it is in this sense that even radically defined and differentiated notions of education

    have, and will continue to fulfill a common and irrevocable political need: the power

    behind a nations faculty for judgmentthe ability to decide.

    4Again, this is indicative of Deweys extreme optimism in regards to human naturethat given a genuine

    opportunity to work together toward a mutually beneficial democratic society, such as the Deweyite school

    system, individual humans will be willing to cooperate in the interest of that society, rather than simply

    trying to assert themselves in order to reach the top.

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