In this chapter Aristotle first describes briefly the variety of assumptions about the purpose of education that prevailed in his day. One view, then as now, is that education should be utilitarian; and so in the second paragraph he indicates how far free men should engage in ‘useful’ activities. If his requirements seem unrealistic, we should remind ourselves that he is thinking of the education of a ‘free’ man, who will in due course become a citizen and ‘statesman’, living among a non-citizen population of artisans and slaves. We may find Aristotle’s views prejudiced and objectionable, but unrealistic they are not: they reflect views common among the ancient Greeks, and certain economic features of Greek states. Interestingly, he believes that even ‘liberal’ activities can, if pursued too zealously, do harm similar to that done by mechanical and menial work. He has something of the feeling for the gentleman-amateur which is still detectable in our own society, particularly (as is sometimes claimed) in the higher grades of the British civil service.
1337a33 It is clear then that there should be laws laid down about education, and that education itself must be made a public concern. But we must not forget the question of what that education is to be, and how one ought to be educated. For in modern times there are opposing views about the tasks to be set, for there are no generally accepted assumptions about what the young should learn, either for virtue or for the best life; nor yet is it clear whether their education ought to be conducted with more concern for the intellect than for the character of the soul. The problem has been complicated by the education we see actually given; and it is by no means certain whether training should be directed at things useful in life, or at those conducive to virtue, or at exceptional accomplishments. (All these answers have been judged correct by somebody.) And there is no agreement as to what in fact does tend towards virtue. For a start, men do not all prize the same virtue, so naturally they differ also about the training for it.
1337b4 Then as to useful things: there are obviously certain essentials which the young must learn; but it is clear (a) that they must not learn all useful tasks, since we distinguish those that are proper for a free man and those that are not, and (b) that they must take part only in those useful occupations which will not turn the participant into a mechanic. We must reckon a task or skill or study as mechanical if it renders the body or intellect of free men unserviceable for the uses and activities of virtue. We therefore call mechanical those skills which have a deleterious effect on the body’s condition, and all work that is paid for. For these make the mind preoccupied,1 and unable to rise above lowly things. Even in some branches of knowledge worthy of free men, while there is a point up to which it does not demean a free man to go in for them, too great a concentration on them, too much mastering of detail – this is liable to lead to the same damaging effects that we have been speaking of. In this connection the purpose for which the action or the study is undertaken makes a big difference. It is not unworthy of a free man to do something for oneself or for one’s friends or on account of virtue; but he that does the same action on others’ account may often be regarded as doing something typical of a hireling or slave. The established subjects studied nowadays, as we have already noted,2 have a double tendency.