Why did Plato believe education should help students value reason?

Plato believed that education should help students value reason because he viewed it as the essential tool for achieving both personal harmony and a just society. In his view, the human soul consists of three parts—reason, spirit, and appetite—and justice is achieved only when reason governs the other two.123

For Plato, valuing reason meant prioritizing wisdom over lesser pursuits such as pleasure and honor. He argued that most people remain trapped in a world of mere appearances and opinions, which are perceived through the senses. Through a rigorous education in dialectic and mathematical reasoning, students can strip away misconceptions and gain access to the realm of Forms—the eternal, universal truths that underlie reality.1425

Ultimately, Plato maintained that only those who have been trained to value and exercise reason are capable of understanding the Good, making them fit to lead and maintain justice within the state. By fostering this intellectual and moral order, education serves to bring harmony to the individual soul and stability to the community.425