EDUCATION (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -The ultimate aim of education is to help people know the Idea of the Good, which is to be virtuous. 13 According to Plato, a just society always tries to give the best education to all of its members in accordance with their ability.

Detailed explanation-2: -Plato regards education as a means to achieve justice, both individual justice and social justice. According to Plato, individual justice can be obtained when each individual develops his or her ability to the fullest. In this sense, justice means excellence. For the Greeks and Plato, excellence is virtue.

Detailed explanation-3: -The highest object of knowledge, according to Plato’s Socrates, is goodness, sometimes translated as “the Good.” (Rep. VI 505a) . For example, there is an absolute Large, an absolute Small, an absolute Justice, etc.

Detailed explanation-4: -The Idea of Good is the final and independent reality, “existing itself by itself”. The way he traces the source of existence of particular objects into their Ideas, the same way he locates the source of existence of the Ideas into the Idea of Good. Plato argues it to be the ultimate basis of knowledge.

Detailed explanation-5: -Here are some of his major contributions to education: Plato sees education as a means of attaining individual and collective justice. Plato groups knowledge development into three stages – Knowledge of one’s own job, self-knowledge and knowledge of the Idea of the Good.