Isocrates’ ideas in the conception of the christian prince of Juan Luis Vives

Abstract

INTRODUCTION. In the Renaissance the recovery of classic authors was a constant by the humanists. Juan Luis Vives did its own with the ideas of many of them. For Vives’s political education proposal, Isocrates’s ideas were the mainstay, as they were also to Erasmus. The importance that the Athenian granted the education of rulers to make them virtuous men and its own political thought favored the relevance that both humanists awarded him. METHOD. This paper compares the circumstances that conditioned each authors’ lives and approach themselves. An exposition of some of the main proposals theorised by Isocrates for the education of princes is made as it reveals that our humanist gave the same importance to it. RESULTS. It is found that, apart from the elapsed centuries and the predominance of Christian ideas during the Renaissance, the model of ideal ruler for both authors is very similar and they agreed about the commitment to the education of princes in wisdom and virtue as the best way to regenerate societies, among other issues. DISCUSSION. As in all periods of History, ethics education of persons engaged in the work of government remains a concern even today. It should be consider whether such Isocrates and Vives’s proposals remain valid in western societies nowadays.