Philistinism in England and America

Comments on Matthew Arnolds Philistinism in England and America In his turn up, Philistinism in England and America, Matthew Arnold examines the ancient themes of Plato in the context of a twentieth century, capitalist golf-club. As he agrees with almost each of what Plato had to label, he also admits that he is come out of the closetdated, and that close to of his teachings batch non be use to us, living in an industrial power such as the United States. Still, though, Arnold defends the ancient philosopher. Education as a driveway to mental and physical righteousness is eer a wide idea, whether it is in modern America or Ancient Greece. I disagree with this, and it is here that I must contest the literature of Plato, as well as the essay by Arnold, for he is definitely a strong partisan of the ancient ideals. In Platos mind, the value of an breeding is to send away ones mind of impure thought, bring it to a higher lever than at the start, and attain a curren t level of righteousness. This may have been a good idea 2300 years ago, and today, I see it as very trammel and impractical. In his time, only the well-off aristocrats went to school. Its purpose was non for the students to hire skills or ideas that would help them later in breeding, extract to flourish their minds, thus making them into better large number. on that aim was no motif for them to learn either job skills. bum then, if you came from a rich family, you were rich. Working at simple jobs was for the peasants and slaves. Today, disembodied spirit is different. Our nightclub is altogether unlike that of the ancient Greeks. We have no caste trunk limiting the riches and prominence of any citizen, we have no slavery to handle all the manual(a) labor, our army is pro rata smaller and much less honored, and morality is a break away of ones snobbish life, not a despotic public force as it was to the Ancient Greeks. Most people today have a reg ular, day to day job, whether it be in an of! fice, store, factory, or anywhere else. We have to earn our wealth by working, not inheritance. That is wherefore most people go to school today. I am attending NYU so that I can get a job later in life. I study interpersonal chemistry and engineering, in the hopes that I can become a chemical substance engineer. According to Plato, this is wrong, and Im corrupting my mind. At this point in my life, I should be reading history and literature, enhancing my mind, and not worrying about maturation a skill. To me, that is an unrealistic goal.

As I get older, I motive to have a job that pays well, so that I can support a family, and be free to do whatever I urgency in my spare time. I dont deprivation to have to deal with restrictions in my life caused by a lack of money. If I lived and was educated in the way that Plato suggests, my life would probably turn out differently from that, and that is why I dislike his ideas. In the quarter century BC, when Plato was alive and writing, society was different. His writings on education relate to that time, when modern capitalist economy was over two gram years away. He had no idea what life would be like today, so it is preposterous to base ones life on what he said so persistent ago. Arnold refuses to admit this. He does say that Platos ideas are outdated, but adds that the basis for his thoughts could still be applied today, for the betterment of society and the people that live in it. If thats the way he feels, Im ok with it, but for me, learning a skill that will let me some money when Im older is much important than purifying my mi nd. If you wan! t to get a just essay, order it on our website: OrderCustomPaper.com

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