Musical Education and the Rational Part of the Soul in Plato’s <i>Republic</i>

Abstract What is the value of educating children in music? Perhaps a childhood musical education can have certain emotional benefits, but can it have any cognitive effects on children’s beliefs and values? For Plato in the Republic, the answer to this question is clearly yes; however, the details of his views about which part of soul musical education develops and exactly what effects it has are more difficult to determine. Answers to this question in the literature fall into two camps. The first camp, where the majority of commentators on this topic fall, argue that musical education targets only the spirited part of the soul, while a select few who make up the second camp argue that musical education also targets the rational part to instil in it opinions that serve as a foundation for the knowledge that it will gain in later education. In this paper, I will agree with the second camp that musical education does target the rational part; however, I will argue that their view falls short in explaining how targeting the rational part in this way helps to achieve the explicit goal of early education of harmonizing the rational and spirited parts. I will then offer a new interpretation of a well-known passage in Book iii to argue that musical education instils in the rational part an ability to perceive and accurately discriminate between fine and shameful items, which prepares the rational part to rule and guide the spirited part.