Concept
Paideia
Overview
Paideia (/paɪˈdeɪə/; also spelled paedeia; Greek: παιδεία) referred to the rearing and education of the ideal member of the ancient Greek polis or state. These educational ideals later spread to the Greco-Roman world at large, and were called humanitas in Latin.
Paideia was meant to instill aristocratic virtues in the young citizen men who were trained in this way. An ideal man within the polis would be well-rounded, refined in intellect, morals, and physicality, so training of the body, mind, and soul was important. Both practical, subject-based schooling as well as a focus upon the socialization of individuals within the aristocratic order of the polis were a part of this training.
The practical aspects of paideia included subjects within the modern designation of the liberal arts (e.g. rhetoric, grammar, mathematics, and philosophy), as well as scientific disciplines like medicine. Gymnastics and wrestling were valued for their effect on the body alongside the moral education which was imparted by the study of music, poetry, and philosophy.
This approach to the rearing of a well-rounded Greek male was common to the Greek-speaking world, with the exception of Sparta, where agoge was practiced.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
Found by search and not yet checked by a person; they may only mention the idea in passing.
That society then which nature has established for daily support is the domestic, and those who compose it are called by Charondas _homosipuoi_, and by Epimenides the Cretan _homokapnoi_; but the society of many families, which was first instituted for their lasting, mutual advantage, is called a village, and a village is most naturally composed of the descendants of one family, whom some persons call homogalaktes…
Aristotle, Politics
States what Paideia is; the author is tied to Paideia in the knowledge graph.
And of this latter there are two parts: because of transactions some are voluntary and some involuntary; voluntary, such as follow; selling, buying, use, bail, borrowing, deposit, hiring: and this class is called voluntary because the origination of these transactions is voluntary. The involuntary again are either such as effect secrecy; as theft, adultery, poisoning, pimping, kidnapping of slaves, assassination…
Aristotle, The Nicomachean ethics of Aristotle
States what Paideia is; the author is tied to Paideia in the knowledge graph.
ATHENIAN: I am glad to hear that you agree with me; for, indeed, the discipline of pleasure and pain which, when rightly ordered, is a principle of education, has been often relaxed and corrupted in human life. And the Gods, pitying the toils which our race is born to undergo, have appointed holy festivals, wherein men alternate rest with labour; and have given them the Muses and Apollo, the leader of the Muses, and…
Plato, Laws
States what Paideia is.
Philosophers who discussed Paideia
Related ideas
- Athens
- Grammar
- Polis
- Homer
- Philosophy
- Isocrates
- Politics (Aristotle)
- Ancient Greek philosophy
- Mathematics
- Medicine
- Mortimer J. Adler
- Rhetoric
- State (polity)
- Aristotle
- Aristotelianism
- Sparta
- Aristocracy
- Werner Jaeger
- Education
- Humanitas
Place in the tradition
Part of Humanism.