Key Arguments

• Teachers of both 'have in view chiefly the improvement of the soul.'
• Exclusive gymnastic produces 'a temper of hardness and ferocity'; the mere athlete becomes 'too much of a savage.'
• Exclusive music produces 'softness and effeminacy'; the mere musician is 'melted and softened beyond what is good.'
• Right education of spirit yields courage; excess intensifies into brutality; right education of gentleness yields moderation; excess collapses into softness.

Source Quotes

Very right, he said. Neither are the two arts of music and gymnastic really designed, as is often supposed, the one for the training of the soul, the other for the training of the body. What then is the real object of them?

What then is the real object of them? I believe, I said, that the teachers of both have in view chiefly the improvement of the soul. How can that be? he asked.

In what way shown? he said. The one producing a temper of hardness and ferocity, the other of softness and effeminacy, I replied. Yes, he said, I am quite aware that the mere athlete becomes too much of a savage, and that the mere musician is melted and softened beyond what is good for him.

The one producing a temper of hardness and ferocity, the other of softness and effeminacy, I replied. Yes, he said, I am quite aware that the mere athlete becomes too much of a savage, and that the mere musician is melted and softened beyond what is good for him. Yet surely, I said, this ferocity only comes from spirit, which, if rightly educated, would give courage, but, if too much intensified, is liable to become hard and brutal.

Key Concepts

• Neither are the two arts of music and gymnastic really designed, as is often supposed, the one for the training of the soul, the other for the training of the body
• the teachers of both have in view chiefly the improvement of the soul
• The one producing a temper of hardness and ferocity, the other of softness and effeminacy
• the mere athlete becomes too much of a savage, and that the mere musician is melted and softened beyond what is good for him

Context

Reframes the purpose of the two arts against common opinion, grounding them in psychic formation and balance.

Perspectives

Plato

Affirms the psychic teleology of paideia: both arts are instruments to tune the soul toward measure and justice.

Socrates

Warns against one-sided training; balance is necessary to prevent character deformation.