Education is good, but it has its limits

A scientist cautions against the idea behind the philosopher-king.

Our chief consultant writes:

Among our consultants here at Five Colors we have no philosophers as such.  However, we have all been exposed to some of the dialogs of Plato at school, and each of us has gone back and re-read several of them recently.  Mainly we are interested in his ways of reasoning and some of his metaphysical ideas, but they’re not central to much of what he wrote.  More often Plato is concerned with virtue, and how to get people to do the right things.  To summarize (and oversimplify somewhat), his answer is education, teaching people what is right and true.  Plato cannot conceive of anyone knowing the Right and doing Wrong.  Hence he sets up a program of education for his ideal Philosopher-King, who will then rule wisely and justly.

In our recent election, several times I heard statements to the effect that deficiencies in the education of one’s opponent’s supporters were to blame for their erroneous choice.  If only their schools had been better they wouldn’t follow such an obvious fraud.  It’s Plato’s fallacy again.

People aren’t that simple.  Motivations and actions are extremely complicated, and very few can be traced to any well-defined cause.  It’s quite possible for people to know something is bad and do it anyway–there are millions of smokers in the US still, for example, most of whom started well after the dangers were known and publicized.  And that’s a simple good-bad thing, far less complicated than the better-worse policy decisions that make up politics.

Even scientists, trained to come to rational conclusions based on evidence, become human once they step out of their field.  I’ve heard some express very strange beliefs, based mostly on personal prejudice, about people and events in the outside world.

So we won’t fix flaws in the political system or the participants in it simply by having more effective primary schools.  Getting all the students up to speed in reading, writing and mathematics will not magically transform them into keen detectors of humbug and charlatanry, never mind coming around to supporting the proper political program (according to the beliefs of the modern Platos).

It is certainly true that the US public education system can and should be improved.  While a well-educated electorate won’t guarantee wise voting, a badly-educated one is in much greater danger of foolish choices.  It’s very difficult to reach a good conclusion based on inadequate or erroneous knowledge.  And, of course, well-educated people are to be desired for many other reasons.

But to work out how to avoid a repeat of this election, notable for its lack of facts and logic, is another problem. And a much harder one.