ISOCRATES (436 - 338 B.C.)

He was slightly older than Plato and lived and wrote in the same cultural situation:
Peloponnesian War, demise of Golden Age, etc.

He was born into the wealthy family of a flute manufacturer and was given the best
education available. He studied with a variety of sophists, as well as with Socrates.

His family lost its money in the war, and Isocrates was faced with the dilemma of
earning a living. He became a lawyer, a speech writer for the courts, for about ten
years. We still have some of the speeches he wrote, although he denies that he ever
did this.

He wanted to be an orator, but he lacked the strong voice and stage presence (he had
stage fright) to do this, so instead he became a teacher of rhetoric. He was very
successful at this and became both rich and famous at it. He attracted students from
all over the Greek speaking world, many of whom went on to important leaders of
their day.

Isocrates died at the age of 98. According to tradition he committed suicide by
starving himself to death upon hearing of Philip's conquest at the Battle of
Charonea. This seems unlikely, since he encouraged Philip to do this.

He thought the tedious, abstract arguments of Plato about metaphysics, epistemology,
axiology and human nature were so much jibberish. He was a practical, down-to-
earth man who wanted to solve immediate problems.

Reality is immediate human experience: "What you see is what you get."
Metaphysical speculation is a waste of time and energy.

Knowledge is tentative. We can't know anything for sure. What we can have is good
opinions. A good opinion is one that helps explain life in a way that helps me get
along in the world. Correspondence to ultimate reality is not important.

Values are relative. Isocrates agrees with Plato in promoting traditional Greek values,
but he does it for different reasons. Isocrates believes those values are useful, but not
necessarily the true values.
Plato wanted to develop in the people a passion for those values because they are
real and eternal and never changing. Therefore, they could give a unity of purpose
and meaning to Athenian life - a reason for living and participating. (Truth, justice
and the American way!)
Isocrates realized that his relativistic value system did not have the
psychological force to draw people together into the common bond of unity and
fraternity that would stabilize society. Therefore, he promoted a political ideal which
he thought could unify: panhellenism. How could this political ideal be achieved?
Only through education. Isocrates, like many modern thinkers, tends to view
education as the savior of the world.

Human nature is distinctive because of man's ability to communicate, to speak. It
appears as though Isocrates may see this as a quantitative, rather than qualitative
difference.

What does this imply for the aims of education?

1. Education should teach people to speak. Speech distinguishes us from animals. Speech was the key to political power. (utility) Speech integrates many aspects of human ability. (thought, speech, action) Isocrates believed that education should not just teach us to think or just teach us to fight. It should make us well-rounded citizens.

2. Education should help us survive and succeed in society.

3. Education should prepare the elite to lead society. Isocrates' school tended to be aristocratic. Only the rich could afford it, and he had very selective admissions. Isocrates was biased against democracy, although he didn't like to admit it.

4. Education should promote a political ideal, panhellenism.

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