The Republic by Plato - 9 - Educating Philosopher Kings
Book Ten
Quote
"The summit of the intelligible realm is reached when, by means of dialectic and without relying on anything perceptible, a person perseveres in using rational argument to approach the true reality of things until he has grasped with his intellect the reality of goodness itself."
Notes
Socrates and his friends next look at how they can produce enlightened leaders? What does the education of a philosopher king look like? What kind of subjects should they study?
Socrates mentions the study of numbers as a good first candidate. Learning about numbers leads the mind into discernment about reality, in addition to being practically useful in warfare and other areas.
But the focus should be on numbers as a study of reality. Their practical application is actually more of a distraction from this. "This knowledge is of things which exist forever, rather than of things which come into existence at some time and subsequently pass away."
Socrates is aware of the difficulties and confusion for people investing time and effort in something that is not practically useful: "It is, in fact, really hard for people to have confidence in the fact that studying this kind of subject cleans and reignites a particular mental organ which everyone has (while other occupations ruin it and blind it), and that this organ is a thousand times more worth preserving than any eye, since it is the only organ which can see truth."
Glaucon suggests that astronomy would be similarly beneficial since it orients the mind upward to another eternal realm. But Socrates disagrees. Astronomy still deals with material reality, not the eternal. Only things that are visible only to the mind's eye are worth studying for this effect.
But the pinnacle of study for any philosopher king is the dialectic: "Dialectic is the only field of enquiry which sets out methodically to grasp the reality of any and every thing." It is by using dialog, discussion, and cutting questions that we come to a true understanding of reality. This makes it the ultimate skill for any ruler.
This education must not be presented as compulsory. Socrates explains, "An autonomous person should never learn a subject in a slavish fashion ... compulsory intellectual work never remains in the mind."
With this education in place, the group now agrees that their community is in fact feasible. Socrates recommends the fastest way of getting there to be stealing children away from their parents so they can implant all these ideas on clean slates. No big deal.
Key Takeaways
Compulsory intellectual work never remains in the mind. Why does it seem like our entire education system is built in opposition to this idea? Although practicing math drills over and over did get those multiplication tables into my head pretty good.
We discern reality best when we don't rely on observing things we can perceive. This is another idea we don't seem to believe in, rightly or wrongly. We rely on evidence and data in order to understand reality. Our intuitions and abstract reasoning can mislead us very badly. What led Plato to distrust perceived reality the way he did, and to rely on dialectic so much more?
Though dialectic is about much more than intuition and abstract reasoning. It is about interrogating ideas, posing detailed questions, and bouncing ideas off others. That can be a powerful way of getting to the truth.