ARISTOTLEAnd Public Education

THE BEGINNINGS

Aristotle was born in 384 BC His father was physician to the king of

Macedonia. When he was 7, he went to study at Plato’s

Academy. Began as a student, became a researcher

and finally a teacher. Was considered one of Plato’s best students. Plato died and willed the Academy to his

nephew. Aristotle left and founded the Lyceum.

ARISTOTLE AND REALISM

Aristotle was a realist. Plato was an idealist. Central thread of idealism is the principle or

thesis of independence. Reality, knowledge and value exist

independently of the mind. Realism rejects the Idealist notion that only ideas are real.

Believed form is within matter and change takes place in matter.

Believed a relationship exists between science and philosophy, and that the study of one leads to the study of the other.

SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY

For instance, studying the material aspects of an acorn should lead to a deeper, more complex reflective thought of what an acorn is – of what it is in essence or form (Ozmon and Craver, 2008).

ARISTOTLE’S VIEWS

Balance is the central concept to Aristotle’s views.

Saw universe as being in a balanced and orderly fashion.

Education was the means used to create a state of good citizens.

MAN IS A RATIONAL ANIMAL

Aristotle believed “man is a rational animal.” While animals express pleasure or pain with

their cries, man and only man is able to speak.

Ability to speak allows man to be able to determine the difference between what is right and what is wrong, what is beneficial and what is harmful.

So, how are these skills and knowledge acquired?

Through education.

EDUCATION WAS CENTRAL

A fulfilled person was an educated person. Education was essential for the self-

realization of man. The supreme good to which all men aspire is

happiness.

EDUCATION AND LEARNING

Aristotle believed education and learning are always about an object and should have content.

He believed a teacher instructs a learner about an object, about some knowledge, or some discipline.

Teaching and learning are always about disciplined inquiry into some aspect of reality.

A school should cultivate and develop each person’s rationality.

KNOWLEDGE AND BELIEF

Knowledge is different from belief in that knowledge is the beginning of dialectic reasoning.

Aristotle believed people make mistakes when their judgment is not found on reason.

A person cannot make a mistake if they have knowledge of something.

Aristotle argued that man should know his own weaknesses so that he would be more cognizant of what he does to make mistakes. If he knows how he creates mistakes, he can take steps to make sure he does what it takes to prevent mistakes from happening.

LEARNING

Students learned about something by practicing it over and over again until they learned it.

This was done through the practice of habituation.

Idea of learning was “Practice first, theory afterwards,” or “Do the deed and ye shall know the doctrine.”

LEARNING, CONT.

Work begun by nature and continued by habit or exercise was completed and crowned by instruction.

This had two functions: To make action free by making it rational, and To make possible an advance to original action.

Nature and habit make men slaves, gov’d by instincts and prescriptions.

Instruction, or revelation of the grounds of action, set men free.

Greeks thought of this as the realization of manhood – or the divine in man.

WHO WAS TO BE EDUCATED?

Men of noble nature. Only citizens of the state were to be

educated. The role of women was to keep house and

have children. Believed women were “intellectually inferior” to men.

Marriage was simple an arrangement to procreate and rear offspring.

Women were regarded as a means and not as an end.

Slaves were not educated.

MEN WERE DIVIDED INTO TWO CLASSES

A Governing Class, and A Governed Class Governing Class required education so that it

could govern the Governed Class. Governed Class required just enough

education as would enable it to obey. Only by completing these duties would each

class find its usefulness and satisfaction, or balance.

THE ORDER OF THINGS

Man

Wife 

Children

Slaves

THE END

Some reported thoughts on Aristotle: “Perplexed with obscure terms and useless

questions,” John Locke. Had “a naïve and childlike animistic view of the

world,” Jean Piaget. Aristotle died in 322 B.C.