ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the views about children and childhood in Plato's Republic. It also demonstrates that although scholars have shown surprisingly little interest in children and childhood in Plato's Republic, this work is a rich source of philosophically relevant ideas that pertain to the topic. The chapter also emphasizes the role of the arts in the process of education. It shows how the arts are presented as the optimal way of preparing the child's soul for the later intellectual education. The Republic gives numerous examples of contents that are unsuitable for children: gods fighting or giving in to pleasures, especially sexual pleasures, and heroes lamenting or being impious. The aim of the educational program of the Republic is to create the perfect climate for the good seeds to grow. One central goal in the Republic for character formation during childhood education is the right balance between softness and hardness.
