Part eight can be found here.

Education is always necessary for any democracy regardless of time and place if it is to succeed. Megabyzus was correctly concerned about a government that was run by the uneducated. If citizens lack the abilities to read, write, discern ideas, and critically think about important questions, they will not be able to differentiate good policy from bad, excellent laws from those that are immoral. If citizens are uneducated it will be impossible for them to contribute intelligently to the important discussions of the day. In addition, if citizens lack a good education they will not be able to adequately judge a debate. Public debate, however, is essential to democracy. Often, an uneducated populace will uncritically believe the first thing they hear rather than reflecting on the facts critically and weighing evidence carefully – the very reason Thucydides wrote his grand history of the Peloponnesian War. “So little pains do the vulgar take in the investigation of truth, accepting readily the first story that comes to hand,” he tells us.¹

The Greek way of education was called Paideia and means something close to “general education.” It was not a specialized form of education but it did give the student the skills to read philosophy, literature, history, to speak persuasively, and to write meaningfully. Paideia did not prepare the student for a specific vocation – the student would find an apprenticeship for that. What the Greek student did learn was how to write, speak critically, and read carefully. The study of history gave the student a sense of the importance of the past as it influenced who they are and becoming to be. The study of literature captured the beauty of language and imagination. And learning philosophy and mathematics allowed the ancient student to think rationally, logically, and critically. This gave the student the general ability to think and communicate in a rational, articulate, and careful manner. They did not have what is today known as “cultural studies” but writers like Aristotle, Herodotus, and Thucydides wrote a lot about other cultures and the Athenians would assimilate the useful ideas they discovered from other civilizations. (Herodotus could arguably be called the first cultural historian.)

Plays were also a form of Greek education. From such playwrights as Euripides, Aeschylus, Sophocles, and the works of homer, Athenians would learn of their history, a sense of tradition (but not always accept tradition for tradition’s sake), and reflect on ideas. Playwrights would often question the ideas of the government and investigate values and civic priorities – as in the case of Sophocles’ Antigone – where the playwright examines the great questions of moral and civil law. The Greek theatre was a place to explore ideas and provide an education for the citizens.

The purpose of Greek education was to create excellent citizens. There was a symbiotic relationship between the state and educated citizens. Part of the role of the state, the Athenians believed, was to produce morally excellent citizens. Then, the educated citizens would be able to make wise decisions regarding the state and foreign policy. Paideia is the kind of education that makes for better citizens. The Athenians believed that “better” meant having more arête or excellence, virtue, or strength.² It includes the idea of having the inner strength to do the right thing. Athenians believed that good education would make young people better able to use good judgment, to live reverently, and to make decisions with justice.³ Throughout the ages, the Western intellectual tradition has emphasized that education serves the purpose of making morally excellent citizens. As Robert Hutchins explains,

The aim of liberal education is human excellence, both private and public (for man is a political animal). Its object is the excellence of man as man and man as citizen. It regards man as an end, not as a means; and it regards the ends of life, and not the means to it. For this reason, it is the education of free men. Other types of education or training treat men as means to some other end or are at best concerned with the means of life, with earning a living, and not with its ends.⁴

There is a teleology and significance to learning that goes beyond earning a living. This is an essential and important difference between classical Greek education and the contemporary American conception of education.

Education, in the popular American mind, is for the purpose of getting a job. And American institutions of higher education have blindly accepted this notion. Now, the state and schools will educate its citizens to be good contributors to the state economy, (which in the end amounts to a form of socialism). The state is not primarily concerned with creating excellent citizens as in the classical tradition, but in creating subservient workers who can perform a trade to better the economy. Many who have been educated in this model learn a vocation and can become successful at their trade, but generally do not know how to carefully read, think or write critically about the most important questions of life. Many do not know how to think deeply about critical issues of the day, or how to handle intelligently the obstacles and challenges of life that might occur later in one’s existence. A purely vocational training qualifies one for little more than slave labor – and man is seen as a means to an end but not the end itself. On the other hand, following the Greek idea of paideia, someone with a liberal arts or humanities education is prepared to think broadly and across different fields of inquiry, consider opposing views, weigh evidence, and follow logical reasoning. These skills, based on careful reading and articulate communication are valuable for any number of employers and are really the best education for life itself. Learning should not cease when one finishes college. A liberal arts education will allow anyone to continue the life long process of learning – also skills valuable to employers in the ever changing workplace. More and more, employers are seeking individuals who can change skills quickly and those with a humanities or liberal arts education are able to do this since they are accustomed to move from one field of inquiry to another (such as history, philosophy, or literature). They are trained to read, write, and communicate well. Nonetheless, the pragmatic emphasis of a liberal arts education is a by product of what preparing for life should be. A pursuit of wisdom, learning and eloquence in education is the best preparation for life and work. State education often misses the point that education should prepare one for life and to become a more excellent citizen, not just to become workers in the state economy. The idea that the individual exists for the benefit of the state is a very narrow view of human life. Economics is not the only reality in life. Bill Clinton’s phrase “it’s the economy stupid” is a shallow understanding of human existence. Economics are important but it is only one element among many in determining a valuable, holistic approach to life and learning.⁵ A recovery of the classical idea of paideia will be a positive move towards a better democracy. Robert Hutchins explains the connection of democracy with liberal education,

This Western devotion to the liberal arts and liberal education must have been largely responsible for the emergence of democracy as an ideal. The democratic ideal is equal opportunity for full human development, and, since the liberal arts are the basic means of such development, devotion to democracy naturally results from devotion to them. On the other hand, if the acquisition of the liberal arts is an intrinsic part of human dignity, then the democratic ideal demands that we should strive to see to it that all have the opportunity to attain to the fullest measure of the liberal arts that is possible to each.⁶

The liberal arts teach human beings how to be free. The devotion to inquiry, free exchange of ideas, and rationalism allows citizens to think carefully about the most important questions of life – including, what is the best form of government? What sort of thing is justice and how should it be distributed? And does ethical theory hold implications for the community and state? These questions and how they have been answered have powerful implications for society and liberal democracies. A liberal arts education teaches us to strive for personal and public excellence, to think rationally, and to live well in a free society.

In the next post, we will further examine the role of education in classical Greece and explore why Pericles called Athens the “school of Hellas”.

1 Thucydides, 354.

2 Woodruff, Paul. First Democracy: The Challenge of an Ancient Idea. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), 193.

3 Ibid.

4 Hutchins, Robert. The Great Conversation: A Reader’s Guide to Great Books of the Western World. (Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc., 1994), 49.

5 A strictly economic study of political reality often misses the point of human nature. Humans rarely function in strict economic categories; rather they are driven by non-economic and non-rational impulses. Irrational emotions and passions often drive people more than economics as is seen in the American economy where it is commonplace to consume more than one needs.

6 Hutchins, The Great Conversation, 50.