Home – Home – Jornals – "Philosophy of Education" 2013 number 1

To a great extent, education explains and justifies the state and the development of any modern political society. In this sense, education betrays the degree of rationality and maturity of a society in its attempt to uphold the imperatives of democracy. The modern world professes an admirable allegiance to a range of values. Education is one of the values, which our modern democracies seek to express and realize. Nearly every contemporary political philosophy endorses these values providing arguments about their nature and compatibility with one another. None of them, however, elevates education to such a higher, pre-suppositional status, as Plato and Hegel did. Indeed, hardly any political theory justifies acting contrary to popular legitimacy on epistemological ground. Although Plato and Hegel were highly critical or even dismissive of democracy, they both thought of knowledge as a necessary prerequisite of both individual and social freedom and prosperity. This meant that it would be a serious mistake not to judge a) responsibility for political decision-making and b) participation in the political affairs on the basis of sufficient knowledge. This paper aims to throw some light on the epistemological and educational requirements of their political vision. Modern political philosophy has neglected Plato and Hegel for the undemocratic nature of their political vision. The paper suggests that despite the negativity of their vision, they both offer positive arguments for strengthening the institutional space of modern democracy. In this sense, their idealist critique of democracy may incite us to reconsider the ultimate goal of a democratic culture, i.e. the creation of responsible and educated citizenship and render this the central task of modern political education.