Plato Be Censored Through Education Essay

Ancient Philosophy Essay 1A

Plato argues that certain poets should be censored primarily through education. He states that legends and fables, while useful for their historical presence, should not be told to younger children. Socrates argues “Shall we carelessly allow our children to hear any old stories made up by just anyone, then, and to take beliefs into their souls that are, for the most part, the opposite of the ones we think they should hold when they are grown up" (377b). He believes these stories initiate the behaviors that are unjust and oppose how society expects them to conform. "Just as a painter might paint a picture that is not at all like the things he is trying to paint," (337e) children should only be taught the truth otherwise they get a false sense of reality. Plato is particularly

targeting Homer's The Odyssey with this idea of censorship and strongly feels that it should be removed due to the inaccuracies told about the gods and what the gods bring to human beings.

Plato deduces that Gods are good, they are not what many have claimed to be the cause of everything. They are, in turn, only the cause of a few things in a human being's life, such as the good. A good portrait of the gods and heroes will show them as worthy and exalted beings but poets such as Homer and Hesiod often spread tales of the gods and heroes fighting, bickering and acting immorally (390b-391e). With the censoring of the Odyssey, they are taking out what is thought to muddle the youths mind with deceptions and fallacies and instead putting in only truths to clarify the sense of justness. This idea of restricting poets, writings, or stories still applies to the modern day in terms of schools contemplating the mandatory reading of some books such as How to Kill a Mockingbird, Huckleberry Finn, and I know why the Caged Bird Sang due to the disturbing content and choice of language used within in the pages. Just as Plato was concerned with the corruption of youth’s minds with falsehoods about gods, parents are concerned of racism having the same effect today. Racism is the strong contender for the reasoning behind pulling these

books out of current curriculum. Parents do not want their children to be exposed to the violence, language, and attitudes that correlate to racism because their minds are still impressionable and with the readings of such books their idea of the world would change to a fictitious reality. Plato acknowledged these ideas and felt that even as the children aged and matured that the readings should still be regulated to ensure that behaviors previously instilled are ingrained in their mind as a permanent fixture. To have a good city, you must have good citizens and to have good citizens you must start young to mold and educate them with teachings that will directly correspond to the actions they should adhere to, thus shielding them from bad material.