“What, then, is our education?2 Or is it hard to find a better than that which long time has discovered?3 Which is, I suppose, gymnastics for the body4 and for the soul music.” “It is.” “And shall we not begin education in music earlier than in gymnastics?” “Of course.” “And under music you include tales, do you not?” “I do.” “And tales are of two species, the one true and the other false5?” “Yes.” “And education must make use
1 Plato likes to contrast the leisure of philosophy with the hurry of business and law. Cf. Theaetetus 172 C-D.
2 For the abrupt question cf. 360 E. Plato here prescribes for all the guardians, or military class, the normal Greek education in music and gymnastics, purged of what he considers its errors. A higher philosophic education will prepare a selected few for the office of guardians par excellence or rulers. Quite unwarranted is the supposition that the higher education was not in Plato's mind when he described the lower. Cf. 412 A, 429 D-430 C, 497 C-D, Unity of Plato's Thought, n. 650.
3 For this conservative argument Cf. Politicus 300 B, Laws 844 A.
4 Qualified in 410 C.μουσική is playing the lyre, music, poetry, letters, culture, philosophy, according to context.
5 A slight paradox to surprise attention.
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