f-mastery and discipline . . . . Only when he has linked these parts together in well-tempered harmony . . . will he be ready to go about whatever he may have to do, whether it be making money . . . or the affairs of state (Plato 141-2).
The harmony of which Plato speaks is desirable in both individual and society. It derives from education (especially though not exclusively political) and the desire for wisdom: a "constant passion for any knowledge that will reveal . . . something of that reality which endures for ever and is not always passing into and out of existence" (Plato 190-1). Attributes of intellectual constancy are linked to Plato's philosopher-king, whose permanent and active commitment to virtue, justice, and wisdom is the basis for the community's depositing sovereignty with the ruler. Plato takes the view that virtue is a social value that must be shared and taught; more exactly he asserts that any ruler worthy of the name must learn it. Whoever would be king should undertake serious study of a variety of arts, physical exercise, and sciences: "If a sound education has made [the rulers] reasonable men, they will easily see their way through all these matters as well as others" (Plato 114).
Aristotle sees the purpose of education expressly to build a good society and good individuals, or citizens within it, expressing his view as a logical proposition:
[J]ust the same method, and just the same means, by which a man becomes good, should also be used to achieve the creation of a city on the pattern of aristocracy or kingship; and thus the training and habits of action which make a good man are the same as those which make a good statesman or a good king (Aristotle 132).
Effective habits are a consequence of appropriate knowledge, i.e., education, according to Aristotle. How habits of goodness are realized, or in context made real, in human experience (which is social and civic), points directly toward developmen...