ABSTRACT
This chapter explicates the Isocratic idea of the essential nature of education, as well as to reconstruct the philosophical argument that Isocrates provided for it. For Isocrates, natural human perfection is achieved by developing the natural human faculty of rational speech in the service of the natural human political faculty, the faculty which elevates human beings above the level of mere animals and provides for the conditions of civilized life. The orations Against the Sophists and Antidosis are commonly regarded as Isocrates' primary educational writings. According to Isocrates, the politeia is always the most important foundation of political life in the regime. In Isocrates' view, politics and education are related in the broadest practical terms in the sense that education, or upbringing generally, is relative to the political character of the regime. Plato, as is well-known, opposed rhetoric, and made no place for it in his educational proposals.
