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Saturday, February 26, 2011

The Spirit of Laws, Book IV - That The Laws Of Education Ought To Be In Relation To The Principles Of Government

Each type of govenment will institute a mode of education suitable to its driving principle.  In a monarchy, the point of education is to correctly understand the demands of honor.  Education, then, will concern itself with seeking greatness-- even in the little things.  Chivalry and gallantry are meant to be a big deal.  Truth isn't even the aim of education, except in that a sense of truth bestows an air of boldness.

Despotism concerns itself less with real education, and more with teaching the young their place in the world.  More important to understand subservient position than to grasp truth.

In a republic, the aim of education is to instill virtue.  But the aim of virtue is proper self-governance.  So education teaches the ways of self-governance, which requires a true understanding a love of that system of governance.  Education is directed to how things are.

[From here, Montesquieu went off describing something about the cultural institutions of the Greeks, like music/athletics/art, and how they served/undermined their culture.  I honestly couldn't follow it at all, and it seems completely unimportant.]

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