Plato’s legacy to education: addressing two misunderstandings

Abstract

Building on the re-reading of Plato presented in Jonas and Nakazawa’s A Platonic Theory of Moral Education, , in this paper, I present some reflections on two widespread misunderstandings of Plato’s ideas about education. The first is that the Platonic theory of education is non-egalitarian, promoting an educational system that justifies and perpetuates a caste-based society. The second is that the Platonic conception of the virtuous agent is primitive and far inferior to the Aristotelian conception, especially concerning the psychological make-up of the virtuous agent. By exploring some of the ways these mis-readings can be countered, I defend the value of the Platonic educational theory for contemporary education and show the value of Jonas and Nakazawa’s wider project.