Since all education in Houyhnhnmland has the goal of cultivating reason above everything else, I can understand the removal of foals from their parents. However, I disagree that the basis of all education should be to cultivate reason to the exclusion of emotion, and so I cannot agree with this method of education. It seems impossible to me to think that human beings might be persuaded to act in this way because we are...
Since all education in Houyhnhnmland has the goal of cultivating reason above everything else, I can understand the removal of foals from their parents. However, I disagree that the basis of all education should be to cultivate reason to the exclusion of emotion, and so I cannot agree with this method of education. It seems impossible to me to think that human beings might be persuaded to act in this way because we are so emotional, and because one of the greatest loves is the love of a parent for their child. The loss of this relationship would be a terrible one indeed.
This method does not seem like a better way to educate the young. Although "Friendship and Benevolence are [their] two principal Virtues" and "Nature teaches them to love the whole Species," it doesn't seem necessary to separate foals from their parents in order to learn these virtues. So, in being separated from their parents, children can learn the same lessons as they would from their parents -- if all parents were raised to believe this by their parents, which it seems like they would be -- but they live life without the benefit of feeling loved for themselves, not just because they are a member of the Houyhnhnms race. They never feel the warm and unconditional acceptance of a parent and they never feel something that isn't rational: to me, then, they seem to lose a great deal more than they gain.
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