Imitating Is Intelligent Living
Those who have understanding seek to imitate examples.
Ibid (bold emphases mine).
In a move to unify the scattered Greek polities against outside conquest, Isocrates writes a letter addressed dressed to King Phillip of Macedonia, urging him to pattern his life after that of his father, who achieved political power through the noble pathway of friendship rather than through engendering factions and bloodshed. After describing the positive consequences the flowed from this strategy ('a long and happy life'), he concludes by saying, 'Now, while all who are blessed with understanding ought to set before themselves the greatest of men as their model, and strive to become like him, it behooves you above all to do so.'
In this passage, Isocrates offers a perfect replication of the standard model of teaching through human examples, and he also indicates that, for him, the imitative life is not for those who lack the courage or intelligence to choose their own way. It is not a derivative, second-hand type of education. Instead, he says that those who have "understanding" seek to imitate examples. Isocrates is elevating the status of imitative learning to a point that would later provoke a good deal of criticism. According to Isocrates, the imitation of exemplars is not opposed to living with intelligence; instead, imitating noble exemplars is intelligent living.
