SUMMARY Essays (2819 words) - Ancient Greek Philosophers, Platonism

SUMMARY Brand Blanshard, a respected philosophy professor, published an essay entitled, The Uses of a Liberal Education, which accounts for a few arguments against a liberal education, but stresses the overwhelming advantages to the same education. According to Blanshard, liberal studies are "the sort of studies that are pursued for their own sake rather than for their utility." (p. 121). The first step Blanshard takes in analyzing the usefulness of a liberal education is to highlight the opposing arguments. First, he examines the price one pays for an education in such subjects as philosophy, mathematics, or history. That price is that of freedom. He enforces this with the idea that 18-year-olds are at the time in their lives where they are entranced by freedom. In studying these tedious subjects, they lose that freedom. His second point is that of the usefulness. He gives multiple examples of men who have changed the face of the earth without education, such as Thomas Edison and Henry Ford. For if it is our purpose to be educated to better our lives materialistically, a liberal education serves no purpose. Thirdly, he highlights languages, explaining that when will any of us need French or Spanish to understand something. Can we not find information in English anywhere? The only worthy case of studying languages is if one intends to live in a foreign country. For the rest of the essay, Blanshard enforces the positives of a liberal education. First, he explores the meaning of usefulness, and comes to the conclusion that usefulness involves "comfort and quiet and richness of the mind, which is simply good." (p. 125). Blanshard, then, highlights three reasons why a liberal education is useful. First, it satisfies our human desire to know. Second, it is useful indirectly through our use of different perspectives. And finally, it "may permeate with its influence all our thought and feeling and action." (p. 124). He concludes this essay by reminding us that "the Greek spirit still remains" (p. 134) and it remains through a liberal education. PLATO "The philosopher doesn't desire one part of wisdom rather than another, but desires the whole thing." (Plato, p. 150). In other words, a liberal education, which enhances the mind's capacity by making available knowledge of various fields of study, is the route the most educated must take. This is the road of the Philosopher King in Plato's world. Plato's world was one where all human's strive for the ultimate from, Good. In this ultimate form one finds various ideas. For example, through the Good, one obtains knowledge of the Truth, Justice, Beauty, Humanness, and gives one the mind/soul, which is an object of knowledge. The first idea Blanshard brings forth in his essay is that "the liberal studies are the sort of studies that are pursued for their own sake rather than for their utility." (p. 121). This, beyond almost anything, coincides with Plato's thoughts. In Book I of the Republic, Socrates, Plato's teacher, discusses the idea of justice with his friends Cephalus, Polemarchus, and Thrasymachus. The most applicable to this particular situation is his conversation with Thrasymachus, where he concludes that justice is never the advantage of the stronger. Plato feels that a leader works for the sake of his servants. He pursues perfection for the sake of something other than self-gratification. If someone pursues a liberal education for its own sake, they are not pursuing it for more money, or to dominate anyone in any way. Therefore, they will not use their power of knowledge in order to harm anyone. They will more or less be benevolent in their use of that knowledge, and use it for the greater goo d. Plato also highlights six subjects of study, which are reserved for the most educated, and so used in the development of tomorrow's leaders, the Philosopher Kings. These subjects are arithmetics, geometry (2-D), solid geometry (3-D), astronomy, harmonics, and the most important of which is dialectics. In studying these particular subjects, Plato is able to develop a leader who is knowledgeable about all things. In Plato's world, these subjects create an atmosphere very similar to that which Blanshard envisions. Blanshard says, "They [men] philosophize because they want to understand the world they live in. I believe that,