The Arts of Education and Governance: Peace in the Person and in the State

For many philosophers of education, there occurs a necessary connection between education and the realization of peace in society. Drawing on Plato and Thomas Aquinas, this paper examines the relation of, on the one hand, education to the realization of unity in the person; and, on the other hand, governance to the realization of unity in the society. Fundamental to this examination is that the arts of education and governance operate as a dispositive agent towards the removal of the hindrances to the achievement of peace in a state. The art of governance, because it is neither an art of violence nor tyranny, does not impose peace on the state; rather it aids the citizens towards disposing themselves to the achievement of peace. Bearing in mind that governance is an art, and not a violent one for that matter, this paper concludes by proposing a peace studies programme that is done in two phases—a peace studies programme that retrieves valid achievements of the past, and interprets best achievements of the present, all within an authentic African anthropology.