Plato vs. Aquinas: Educational Views
The field and concept of education is a vast and long philosophized topic. For centuries, both the educated and commoner have lamented, discussed, debated, and argued over its place in society. The worth and need for education has consumed the political world for decades. Much effort and money is spent educating the youth of the future. While schools in the sense that we know them today are a relatively new concept in the scope of time, the broader idea of education has existed since early mankind. As the human species has evolved from hunter-gathers, to agriculturists, to industrialists, so has the concept of education. The human animal has always educated itself on some level, gaining knowledge through interactions with the environment. In addition, the human species, while providing education for all, continues to maintain a hierarchy of learning, allowing some to achieve a greatness of knowledge over others. These "chosen" educators willingly assume the role and responsibility of educating others and bestowing the knowledge they have garnered onto the masses. This modern day scenario of teacher and pupil is similar to the idea Plato described in The Republic, of an educational system where morality, truth, and virtue are driving forces of those who assume the role of educator. Aquinas also maintained the importance of a teacher's beliefs and strong allegiance to bestowing knowledge on those who are the pupils. The thoughts and beliefs of these two philosophers set the foundation for our modern day education system.
In today’s modern society, education is considered a commodity or a product. There is an obsession with the quality control of our educational product, with monitoring t...
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...ives of Aquinas and Plato are the infrastructure of the knowledge sharing, open questioning, self-discovery, and cooperative learning that allows the field of education to prosper and maintain the fortitude it does presently and for future generations to come.
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Aquinas was born around 1225 in Roccasecca, which is located in Italy today. He was born right after the death of Francis of Assisi. Thomas was from an even richer family than Francis. Thomas had eight siblings, and was the youngest child. His family was low nobility. Before thomas’s birth his mother was told by a holy hermit that her son would achieve unequal sanctity. Following his fate...at the age of five he was sent to a monastery to preach the word of god. Thomas stayed at this monastery until age ten. Until political climate forced his return to Naples. Thomas spent his next five years finishing his education at Naples. Thomas started college at ten years old! Aquinas became drawn to religious learning. He also st...
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For Plato, education was more fundamental than tradition or literature or civilization or culture, for education determined how all the others were to be acquired, appreciated, and criticized. Indeed, education and philosophy were, as they are now, intimately linked. The practice of philosophy in Plato's time as in ours, the business of philosophy, was teaching far more than it was system-building. In fact, if Plato was the author of a system of philosophy, by which we are to understand a coherent set of interrelated axioms and their mutual implications, then Plato was a profoundly unsuccessful philosopher. For Plato makes such a variety of different and incompatible statements about so many topics that more than two thousand years of scholarship has thus far failed to produce anything like the consensus about his so-called system that one finds among Aristotelians, for example, or even Marxists.
Plato. The Republic. Trans. Sterling, Richard and Scott, William. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1985.
With these rejected definitions in mind, Plato’s theory of knowledge, one that is grounded in idealism , calls for the separation of form and matter as well the existence of two worlds: the world of appearances and the world of intelligibly. The Platonic theory of knowledge states that knowledge is achieved through the ascension of, what Plato calls, the Plateaus of Kno...
Thomas Aquinas was born into a rather noble family although having it been split by Aristotle for 900 years. Born in 1225 in Roccasecca,Italy his father Landolph, count, of Aquinas his father sent him to Monte Castro. There he received care from the Benedictines as well as excelled above his pupils not only in academics but also virtue. After five years in the Monte Castro he then advanced to the University of Naples where he received a interest in contemporary monastic orders as well as continued his study of Aristotle. He also found a strong interest in those who chose to pursue a more spiritual life opposed to being more laid back with their spiritual views. In 1243 despite strong resignation from his family he joined the Dominican monastic order at Cologin. His parents went as far as sending impure women to break his spiritual virtue. However he was able to withstand these temptations and preserve his vocation. When that failed it is said that his parents then went out to kidnap him in order to minimize his spiritual belief. Following a year of imprisonment he was able to hold onto what the church and University taught him. Thomas Aquinas was able to receive gods gift of perfect chastity therefore receiving the nickname “Angelic Doctor”. From 1245 to 1252, St. Thomas Aquinas continued his studies with the Dominicans in Naples, Paris as well as Cologne. He was ordained into priesthood in Cologne, Germany, in 1250. He then went to teach theology at the University of Paris. Under the instruction of St. Albert the Great, St. Thomas Aquinas earned his doctorate in theology. Consistent with the holy hermit's prediction who predicted about St. Thomas Aquinas ...
Education is a vital part of society. It serves the beneficial purpose of educating our children and getting them ready to be productive adults in today's society. But, the social institution of education is not without its problems. Continual efforts to modify and improve the system need to be made, if we are to reap the highest benefits that education has to offer to our children and our society as a whole.
Greek philosophers Aristotle and Plato were two of the most influential and knowledgeable ancients in our history. Their contributions and dedication to science, language and politics are immensely valued centuries later. But while the two are highly praised for their works, they viewed several subjects entirely differently, particularly education practices, and human ethics and virtue.