6. ILLUMINATION: Education as a Way Out of the Shadowlands

Your Library Is Your Paradise

The Renaissance humanist Erasmus of Rotterdam was a champion of classical education. He understood that man is full of faults, but he had hope that he could improve. Through grace he could become God’s co-creator. He praised compassion, humility and moderation. ”Your library is your paradise,” he said.

Martin Luther’s friend and colleague Philipp Melanchthon followed the same line. He too recognised the importance of education. Melanchthon combined the principles of the Reformation with the classical heritage from ancient Greece and Rome. This laid the foundation for a rich intellectual tradition.

Unfortunately, many Protestants today seem to have neglected this. Now is the time to rediscover and revitalise our educational heritage! (The Germans call this Bildung; this is a broad term that emphasises personal growth).

A Precious Treasure Not to Be Lost

A good place to start is with the ancient Greeks. There are those who reject ancient Greek democracy because it excluded women and slaves. Certainly there was no small amount of elitism, sexism, racism and fascism in the ancient world. Neither the people of the Bible nor the classical philosophers were free from such things.

But the dark background need not discourage us. It is precisely the liberation from the might-is-right philosophy that is important. Both successes and failures can be relevant to us.

Since these people lived in a completely different culture, we can try to see ”similarities between different things and differences between similar things”. In this way we can search for the principles that underlie the art of being human.

The accumulated experience of humanity is a precious treasure, and to forget it is not very progressive. To move forward, we must learn from history. To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child, said Cicero.

A Revolutionary idea: The Quest for the Best

There was a turning point in Greek history – perhaps sometime around 600–500 BC – when the Greeks stopped asking, “What pleases the ruler?” and instead began to ask: “What is best – and why?”

They were moving away from a world of obedience, where subjects existed mainly to serve the king, and where the highest “virtue” was submission. This was the birth of a society in which human beings were expected to think – to argue, to deliberate, to search for truth. Not merely to obey or to please, but to dare to ask what is best. Instead of standing silently before a throne, the citizen stood up in the marketplace and spoke.

Once people begin to ask “what is best?”, a new world opens up. It becomes fertile ground for great cultural achievements: philosophy, drama, political thought, art and architecture, science and mathematics.

That shift changed everything, and it still matters today. This is the kind of freedom the Greeks were prepared to defend with their lives. In our own time, we may have to defend it again, as leaders increasingly want citizens to please them rather than question them. They build courts of fear and flattery, and in doing so, they suffocate the quest for the best.

The Greeks did put a great deal of effort into pleasing the gods (remember Euthyphro in a previous chapter), so they were not entirely free. But even with that limitation, it was an extraordinary

achievement of human creativity.

Of course, it was never obvious what “the best” really was, or who should decide it. Those were precisely the questions the Greeks wrestled with. Understanding their struggle makes us better prepared to defend freedom – which should never be taken for granted.

The Search for the Best Regime

It is quite impressive that ancient Athens had a system of government that was as inclusive as it actually was. They developed a democracy that did not rely on bureaucrats and professional politicians. Instead, they relied on the participation of citizens and their ability to use their common sense.

Athens was at odds with Sparta, which practised a much more brutal form of slavery. They could not understand why Athens gave power to the uneducated masses. Instead, their system of government was an oligarchy, the rule of the few.

The Spartans worshipped the god Phobos (fear) for his ability to create discipline and uniformity. Their society was marked by extreme collectivism and their culture was – Spartan. The Athenians also had their follies, but they had a rich and flourishing culture.

Athens and Sparta represented two contrasting political ideals and clashed for influence among the Greek city-states. These two ideas are still in conflict.

The first idea is that all citizens are basically equal and should have a say in the affairs of society. Everyone has common sense, and if they don’t, they can develop it over time through engagement in society and equal dialogue. If people are treated as adults, it is possible that they will actually become adults.

The second idea is that people are not equal. Humanity can be divided into ”the clever and enlightened” and ”the stupid and unenlightened”. To create a good society, the former must have power over the latter.

Plato lived in Athens, but he followed the second line. He wanted to introduce aristocracy – ”the rule of the best”, that is, rule by a noble and cultured elite. He was highly critical of democracy, which he believed gave free rein to passions and irrationality. Sooner or later, he argued, it would degenerate into tyranny. The great challenge for democracy in our time is to prove Plato wrong on this point.

We should remember, however, that what we now call democracy is more a legacy of ancient Rome than of Athens. Cicero lived in the Roman Republic, which had a kind of mixed form of government: monarchy, aristocracy and democracy. The rule of one leader can create capacity for action. Rule by the wisest can provide expertise. Rule by the common people can promote common sense. Cicero believed that a well-designed constitution takes the best from each.

We Can Learn From Plato

In a chapter of the book Adventures and Reflections, I describe my work on water supply in Nepal during the Maoist insurgency. There I argue for Karl Popper’s idea of the open society. Popper is known for his harsh criticism of Plato. Too harsh, I think. Even those of us who believe in democracy can learn from Plato’s ideas.

Plato's scepticism about democracy can be hard to accept. However, it becomes more understandable when we realise that he was mainly criticising what we call populism. Today we are painfully aware of how easily democracies can fall into darkness. Populism can create a cult of power that leads to incompetent leadership, authoritarianism and tyranny.

We can also relate to Plato's famous parable of the cave. We're constantly bombarded with unreliable information from all sides. It's hard to separate fact from fiction. Fake news spreads quickly, and many people get caught up in distorted views of the world. It feels like we're living in a world of shadows, confusing illusion with reality. We long for real knowledge and a true understanding of the world.

The Illusion of Freedom in the Shadowlands

Is this freedom?

• To say whatever comes to mind without inhibition.
• To follow your impulses and do whatever you want.
• To give vent to your overinflated ego.
• To let go of the reins of your inner tyrant.

Isn't true freedom about being liberated from such narrow and self-centred horizons? The Swedish philosopher and educator Alf Ahlberg believed that a functioning democracy requires us to develop the ability to think freely. The problem is not a lack of freedom of expression, but our tendency to enslave ourselves.

Ahlberg argued that we humans are very good at convincing ourselves that we are more rational than we really are. We defend our opinions with reasons that seem logical but are really based on desires, sympathies and antipathies. We see facts that flatter and please us, and turn a blind eye to what humiliates and angers us. We easily fall prey to social prejudices and superstitions. He wrote:

In our narcissistic culture, free thinking is synonymous with following your innermost feelings. Freedom means inflating your ego and giving it free rein. Your subjective opinion becomes something sacred that should not be violated. True is what feels right. Good is what feels good.

Socrates was adamant that these are not the same thing. Such subjectivism makes us easy prey for those who are skilled at manipulating emotions.

Ahlberg argued that fascism and other totalitarian ideologies are based on primitive subjectivism. Collective feelings of flattery, hatred and revenge are believed to be good because they are pleasurable.

The Path Out of the Shadowlands

Plato can be a friend in need. In The Republic, he admittedly put forward some undemocratic and rather absurd ideas. It was shocking to his contemporaries in Athens that he used the collectivism of Sparta as a model. His student Aristotle thought he went too far.

At the same time, The Republic can be surprisingly progressive. Socrates described an ideal society ruled by educated and noble leaders. Plato’s own brother Glaucon listened and was deeply impressed:

Wise women must be educated to rule society as philosopher-queens, thought Plato. In Athens in 400 BC, this was a revolutionary idea. 

There are both good and bad political ideas in The Republic. But what is perhaps most relevant to us today is not its politics, but its psychology and virtue ethics.
Plato divided the soul into three parts. The first is reason and the second is desires and drives. The third can be described by words such as combativeness, ambition, passion and spiritedness.

Chaos arises when, for example, desire begins to rule over reason. Or when the urge for action becomes an unbridled desire for power. Plato argued that there must be no internal civil war between the three parts. He wrote:

Inner health is about the creation of inner harmony. According to Plato, the three parts of the soul (reason, will and desire) must be coordinated so that each has its proper place and function.

A disorganised soul, he believed, was bound by its desires and fixations. It is like being chained up in a dark cave, lost in shadows and illusions. ‘The Form of the Good’ is like the sun that makes everything appear in its proper light.

The way out of the cave, according to Plato, is through education and virtue. He reflected on what would later be called the four cardinal virtues. Today we could interpret them in the following way:

• Wisdom, e.g. knowing what you don’t know.

• Just-mindedness, e.g. to separate the issue from the person.

• Moderation, e.g. not going to extremes.

• Courage, e.g. not letting fear rule over reason.

Plato saw these virtues as safeguards against inner chaos and political decay. We need not follow him in all his political conclusions, but his warning remains. If citizens lose the capacity for self-government, they will soon look for someone else to govern them.

Today, democracy and the rule of law are once again challenged by the old temptation of “might is right.” The cities of ancient Greece are long gone, yet their story speaks more clearly than ever. Their world has vanished, but the appetite for power and the struggle for justice are ever new.