The Platonist Tradition and the Ordering of Knowledge...

The Platonist Tradition and the Ordering of Knowledge ABSTRACT: I argue that the contemporary crisis in education — that nothing appears valid as a discipline unless it has a utilitarian value — may be challenged from the perspective of the Platonist tradition. The ascent through philosophy to the vision of Beauty in itself in Platos Symposium affirms the perception of beauty or nobility as the ultimate end and value of all knowledge. Marsilio Ficinos adaption of Plato in the Renaissance articulates a more metaphysical ascent which broadens the objects of knowledge in order to include the cosmos and the arts as well as philosophy. Together, these two accounts provide a foundation for understanding the ordering of all knowledge†¦show more content†¦Of course, they are disappointed to discover that philosophy has more questions than answers, and that there is no answer which has not been disputed. Nevertheless, they approach the subject in the same spirit as traditional philosophical inquiry. In this spirit, then, i t is appropriate to seek an answer to the question, What is the value of education? Indeed, this question presupposes an answer to an even more basic one: What is education? It is difficult to articulate responses to these questions. Can liberal education today be really non-utilitarian, as it was for Aristotle, motivated by pure curiosity and a concern for excellence? (3) Such a response has the merit of joining battle directly with the modern mentality, but it presupposes the system of moral and intellectual virtues as defining human excellence. On the other hand, it is impossible to follow the classical tradition and find a moral value in literature and the fine arts without drawing critical distinctions regarding the moral value of particular works. This, however, has long been foreclosed by the Kantian doctrine of the autonomy of aesthetic judgment. (4) In any case, it is unclear what might be the source of moral judgment in the modern world; the classical concept of virtue presupposed both a concept of the soul and a concept of citizenship in a particular locality. (5) All three concepts have largely disappeared in the modernShow MoreRelatedCosmolo gy in Miltons Paradise Lost2810 Words   |  12 Pagesand Arabic sources in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Specifically, the Aristotelian tradition gained center stage in the thirteenth century and gradually substituted its conception of the cosmos for that of Plato and the early Middle Ages. This is not to suggest that Aristotle and Plato disagreed on all the important issues; on many of the basics they were in full accord. Aristotelians, like Platonists, conceived the cosmos to be a great (but unquestionably finite) sphere, with the havens above