ngth clearly impact the conduct of guardians, and that there is a need todemonstrate that the warriors are not simply blood-thirsty war-mongers, but instead have the capacity for rational thought and for the development of a wide variety of personal characteristics. Book II of Plato's Republicbegins with the assumption of the necessity for the education of the guardians but takes this argument further by demonstrating the benefits of physical and musical training. It is Plato's assertion that these are necessary in order to determine that the warriors, the guardians ofthe city are actually true and virtuous. As a component of the arguments for education in the guardian class, Plato also suggests that the man cannot be assumed to be truly wise or to have the capacity for effective decision making if he cannot comprehend basic aesthetic virtues like beauty as well as more complex issues like morality. The guardians of any ideal city, then would demonstrate their capacity for instilling virtue in others and directing the course of their own actions to maintain this premise. In conjunction, Plato asserts the need for a moral education of the guardians in order to determine the capacity of guardians to instill morality in others. In Book VI, Plato sets the premise for his argument for education in his determinations regarding the soul, the search for truth and the pursuit of intelligence. The most substantive view of the correlation between Plato's premises and modern educational philosophies can be seen in Book VII, when Socrates presents the "Allegory of the Cave". This story, provides and outlines the role of both the teacher and the student. Socrates' message begins in theidea that individuals can develop within surroundings that are so limited that they have know way of experiencing truth outside of what they can directly perceive, and this is the essential underpinning of ignorance. But if an individual can learn to understand th...
