The World is Too Much with Us: Apparent and Real Platonic Views of Intelligence and Knowledge for Education
Abstract
From Plato onwards, notions of intelligence and ability – and of their implications for human flourishing – have had a chequered educational history. Following some attention to the influence of IQ theory on (arguably neo-Platonic) post-WW2 British selective state education, this paper proceeds to consider the more egalitarian educational reaction to such selection from the nineteen-sixties onwards. However, while appreciative of the individual and social benefits of such greater educational equality, the paper proceeds to ask whether the notions of individual growth, fulfilment and flourishing that they may seem to entail are entirely appropriate for the human world of tomorrow.
References
Arnold, M. (1967) ‘Preface to Literature and Dogma’, in James Gribble (ed.) (1967)
Matthew Arnold, London: Collier-Macmillan. 150.
Gardner, H. (2006) Multiple Intelligences: New Horizons in Theory and Practice, New
York: Basic Books.
Hirst, P. H. and Peters, R. S. (1970) The Logic of Education, London: Routledge and
Kegan Paul.
MacIntyre, A.C. (1981) After Virtue, Notre Dame: Notre Dame Press.
McCluhan, M. (2005) Understanding Media, London: Routledge Classics.
McCluhan, M. and Fiore, Q. (2016) The Medium is the Massage: An Inventory of
Effects, Harmondsworth: Penguin Modern Classics.
Ministry of Education (1944) Education Act 1944, London: Her Majesty’s Stationary
Office.
Nichol Smith, D. (1921) Wordsworth: poetry and prose, Oxford, Oxford Clarendon
Press.
Peters, R. S. (1966) Ethics and Education, London: George Allen and Unwin.
Plato (1961) Republic, in E. Hamilton and H. Cairns, eds., Plato: The Collected Dia-
logues, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 575–844.
Rawls, J. (2005) A Theory of Justice, Harvard: Harvard University Press.
Rousseau, J-J. (1977) The Social Contract and Other Discourse, London: Dent
Everyman.
Sandel, M. (1998) Liberalism and the Limits of Justice, Cambridge: Cambridge Uni-
versity Press.
Taylor, C. (1992) Sources of the Self, Cambridge: Harvard University Press
Tucker, W. H. (1994). ‘Fact and fiction in the discovery of Sir Cyril Burt's flaws’, Jour-
nal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences 30 (4): 335–347.
Tucker, W. H. (1997). ‘Re-reconsidering Burt: beyond a reasonable doubt’, Journal
of the History of the Behavioral Sciences 33 (2): 145–162.
White, J. (1971) ‘The curriculum mongers; education in reverse’, in Richard Hooper
(ed.) (1971) The Curriculum: Context, Design and Development, London: Oliver
and Boyd
White, J. (2006) Intelligence, Destiny and Education, Abingdon and New York: Rout-
ledge.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
-
The Author/Authors declares/declare that their publication is original has not been published before and is not currently being considered for publication elsewhere and does not include borrowings from other works which might cause Publisher's responsibility, does not infringe the rights of the third party and that their copyright on this publication is not limited. The Author/Authors will incur all the costs and will pay compensations which might result from the mendacity of the following statement.
-
The Author/Authors declares/declare that issues about publication ethics, have been appropriately considered.
-
The Author/Authors agrees/agree to publish the article free of charge in Multidisciplinary Journal of School Education in English or Spanish. The Editorial Board reserves the right to shorten the texts and change the titles.
-
As part of free publication mentioned in § 1, the Author/Authors agrees/agree to make the full electronic version of their article available in the Internet.
- The Author/Authors agrees/agree to index their article in databases at home and abroad, including abstracts and keywords as well as Authors’ affiliation in English and in other languages. The Author/Authors agrees/agree to pass on the information mentioned above to the owners of these databases.
-
The Author/Authors declares/declare that the article is free of plagiarism.
-
The Author/Authors declares/declare that funding and conflict of interest information has been included in the article.
-
The Author/Authors accepts/accept that the author is aware of the consequences of scientific dishonesty, which, once detected, will be documented and disclosed to the public, and information about it will be communicated to the relevant institutions (universities employing the authors, scientific societies, publishing houses, etc.).
-
The Author/Authors declares/declare to publish the text in the Multidisciplinary Journal of School Education under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-ND 4.0).
- For one Author. Please complete the Author Statement and send it to the editorial office. Please download, complete, scan and attach the file in the system during the submission process.
Download: Author Statement -
For more than one Author. The Authors declare to bear complete responsibility for the scientific reliability of the article submitted. The detailed contribution of all co-authors is defined. Please complete the Authors Statement-Authorship Contributions and send it to the editorial office. Please indicate the specific contributions made by each author (list the authors’ initials, e.g., JKH). Please download, complete, scan and attach the file in the system during the submission process.
Download: Authors Statement - Authorship Contributions