Education and Politics in Plato and Cicero Open Access
Zainaldin, James (2014)
Published
Abstract
In this thesis I examine
the relationship between education and political service in Plato's
Republic and Cicero's De Re Publica, De
Legibus, and De Oratore. In the Republic, there
are a number of indications that the educated individual
(philosophos) and the city
(polis) stand in a tense, even antagonistic
relationship. The first two chapters of this thesis attempt to
understand this tension, first by sketching the basic movement of
the Republic's educational program, next by considering
Socrates's statements on political service and the philosopher's
happiness. In the first chapter, I argue that education in the
Republic can be understood most fundamentally as ascent to
and orientation towards the Good (to agathon)
and, in the second, that it is this attention upon the Good that
disinclines the individual to political service. Socrates
stipulates the need for a compulsion (ananke)
if the philosopher is to overcome this aversion to politics, but I
conclude that it is far from likely that such a compulsion is
forthcoming. The second half of the thesis picks up on similar
themes in Cicero's writings, asking whether the ideal statesman in
Cicero--whom we must also believe to be the perfectly educated
individual, as the philosopher is in Plato's Republic--is
reluctant towards political service. In chapter three, I argue that
this individual in Cicero's writings is not only not averse
to politics, but also that a strong, natural necessity
(necessitas) compels him to it. The compulsion discussed in
the Republic is, then, done away with in favor of an
internal compulsion that induces the educated individual to
participation in the state (res publica). The fourth chapter
spends some time considering the ways that Cicero's educational
plan pay deference to this high, unambiguous valuation of political
life and the need to participate therein.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Introduction . . . 1
Some Methodological Remarks . . . 4
Ch.1. Education in Plato's Republic . . . 10
Ch.2. Politics in Plato's Republic . . . 32
First Interlude . . . 54
Ch.3. Politics in Cicero's De Re Publica and De Legibus . . . 55
Ch.4. Education in Cicero's De Oratore . . . 81
Second Interlude . . . 102
Concluding Remarks . . . 103
Works Cited . . . 106
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