Aristotle and Ancient Educational Ideals — John Shaqi
Aristotle and Ancient Educational IdealsDavidson, Thomas
Philosophy
Aristotle and Ancient Educational Ideals
Davidson, Thomas
Aristotle, 384 BC-322 BC; Education, Greek
When we consider the different arts that have been discovered, and
distinguish between those which relate to the necessary conditions
of life and those which contribute to the free enjoyment of it
(διαγωγή), we always consider the man who is acquainted with the
latter wiser than him who is acquainted with the former, for the
reason that the sciences of the latter have no reference to use.
Hence it was only when all the necessary conditions of life had been
attained that those arts were discovered which have no reference
either to pleasure or to the common needs of life; and this took
place first in those countries where men enjoyed
leisure.--Aristotle.
The free life of God is such as are our brief best moments.--_Id._
It is not fitting that the free enjoyment of life should be
permitted to boys or to young persons; for the crown of perfection
belongs not to the imperfect.--_Id._
Obviously, the free enjoyment of life demands not only the noble but
also the pleasant; for happiness consists of these too.--_Id._
Among the Homeric Greeks, whose life was almost entirely devoted to
practical pursuits, education was mainly practical, aiming to produce "a
speaker of words and a doer of deeds." As civilization advanced, and
higher political forms were evolved, certain classes of men found
themselves blessed with leisure which they were not inclined to devote
to mere play. In order to make a worthy use of this leisure, they
required a certain training in those arts which were regarded as
befitting a free man. Education, accordingly, in some states, widened
its scope, to include those accomplishments, which enable men to fill
their hours of freedom with refined and gracious enjoyment--music and
letters. Music, indeed, had been cultivated long before, not only by
professional bards, but even by princes, like Achilles and Paris; this,
however, was for the sake of amusement and recreation rather than of the
free enjoyment of life. It had been regarded as a means, not as an end.
We must be careful, in our study of Greek life and education, not to
confound play and recreation, which are for the sake of work, with the
free enjoyment of life, which is an end in itself, and to which all work
is but a means. "Enjoyment is the end." We shall see, as we proceed, to
what momentous results this distinction leads, how it governs not only
all education but all the institutions of life, and how it finally
contributes to break up the whole civilization which it determines. It
may fairly be said that Greece perished because she placed the end of
life in individual æsthetic enjoyment, possible only for a few and
regarding only the few.
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