The Purpose of Schooling in the Light of Plato’s Theory of Republic

ABSTRACT

[Objective] Recently, Korea has experienced many national crisis, such as disastrous incidents and the impeachment of the president. This paper reveals more clearly the substance of Korean national crisis in the light of Plato’s theory of republic and discusses which public education purpose to be taken as a priority for the national justice. [Contents] The meaning of justice that Plato defines in designing a theoretical model of a good state is ‘doing one’s own job’. A state can be regarded as composed of a guardian group and a producer one. What is critical for the establishment of a just state is public education to educate guardians or producers in accordance with their own talent and disposition. Especially, it is important for the guardians’ commitment to the whole community rather than seeking for their own interest, and for the guardian education it is crucial for them to acquire ‘civic courage’. If we look in the Korean crisis, we finds that the public officials and experts who can be regarded as guardians do not have ‘civic courage’. In addition, there is a more serious crisis in that the producer community or the occupational state which is the foundation of the state is collapsing. [Conclusions] In order to overcome this crisis, citizen education should be taken as a primary purpose of public education.