Five years ago in Theory and Research in Education, James R. Muir fired a new salvo in the debate regarding the merits of Isocrates’ educational program, a controversy that has endured for more than two millennia. Was the Isocratean program misguided and lowbrow, as in the estimations of Plato and Aristotle — or was it the most successful program of classical education, as in the later estimations of Cicero and Quintilian? Was Isocrates himself a middling intellect, as Marrou claims, or, worse, a progenitor of Hitler’s Third Reich, as Vitanza maintains — or was he the founder of modern liberal arts education, as Corbett and Welch believe? To date, the debate has dealt more with the reputation than the details of Isocrates’ program. In hopes of shedding additional light on the controversy, this article draws upon Isocrates’ own essays to present the goals, curriculum, and methods of his educational program.
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