ABSTRACT
The aims of education can be inferred from Plato's ideal-typical model. Plato's assumption was that the perfect society was a just society and the just society was one that most closely corresponded to a transcendent ideal. Since Plato's conception is principally political there should be in the just society rulers and ruled. Historically attacks on Platonic assumptions have met with varied success. The thrust and success of the challenges made in Europe to Platonic theories differ from one country to another. For Plato, gymnastics ought to promote fierceness; literary studies ought to promote gentleness. Indeed, so convinced is Plato of the innate character of ability that he suggests that in the ideal society, in order to avoid mixing the noble blood of leaders with the base blood of the workers, unions should be carefully arranged so as to keep the race of guardians pure. Plato's theory of individual differences is expressed in an analogy.
