Last month I had a post about philosophy and parenthood published at Modern Stoicism (formerly Stoicism Today). The post, linked here, is about how Plato's approach to parenting as described in the Republic is pretty much guaranteed to screw kids up.
On the other hand, the Stoic Musonius Rufus, writing somewhat later in antiquity, proposed a nurturing approach to family and raising children that happens to be very consistent with modern research on ideal infant attachment and child development. Here is an excerpt from the post (you can read the entire post at Modern Stoicism):
"Plato errs in viewing the care of young children as an unimportant activity which hinders or detracts from philosophy and the good of the state, rather than one which is good and philosophical in and of itself. Raising virtuous and empathetic children is a most important matter, maybe even the most important philosophical matter, because it is the cornerstone on which a good society is built to begin with."
On the other hand, the Stoic Musonius Rufus, writing somewhat later in antiquity, proposed a nurturing approach to family and raising children that happens to be very consistent with modern research on ideal infant attachment and child development. Here is an excerpt from the post (you can read the entire post at Modern Stoicism):
"Plato errs in viewing the care of young children as an unimportant activity which hinders or detracts from philosophy and the good of the state, rather than one which is good and philosophical in and of itself. Raising virtuous and empathetic children is a most important matter, maybe even the most important philosophical matter, because it is the cornerstone on which a good society is built to begin with."
