Plato Noble Lie Summary

The start of theater and drama in Ancient Greece took form in about 5th century b.c, with Sophocles being considered the master of tragedy. In his plays and those of the same genre, classic fables that the people of the era knew well were used to tell the stories. The tragic hero’s of these stories often strive to live honorable and righteous lives, but because of some mistake their lives would often great and noble death. The idea that serving the state was proper way to gain honor was a popular belief during this time period. This philosophy was echoed by Plato in his book, the Republic. Plato dealt with establishing the ideal state. The way to achieve the ideal state was through striving for justice. Justice, according to Plato, is doing only the tasks assigned to them by nature. This is the fundamental notion for his creation of an ideal city. It is both knowing what true justice is and where one belongs in the city that the ideal can be achieved. Justice in a city can be found in an individual as well outside the individual because it is a concept that is universal. If a ruler of a state was to maintain order and control over his people

Plato believes that it is proper to tell falsehoods to children because it is preventing them from becoming disrespectful. Because good is coming out, it would be a moral thing to lie in this situation. Plato also thinks this type of verbal falsehood is just because we really don’t know what happened in the past with the Gods, therefore by making the lie as mush like the truth,

Plato is remembered as one of the worlds best known philosophers who along with his writings are widely studied. Plato was a student of the great Greek philosopher Socrates and later went on to be the teacher of Aristotle. Plato’s writings such as “The Republic”, “Apology” and “Symposium” reveal a great amount of insight on what was central to his worldview. He was a true philosopher as he was constantly searching for wisdom and believed questioning every aspect of life would lead him to the knowledge he sought. He was disgusted with the common occurrence of Greeks not thinking for themselves but simply accepting the popular opinion also known as doxa. Plato believed that we ought to search for and meditate on the ideal versions of beauty, justice, wisdom, and other concepts which he referred to as the forms. His hostility towards doxa, theory of the forms, and perspective on reality were the central ideas that shaped Plato’s worldview and led him to be the great philosopher who is still revered today.

Now let us take a look into the background of the story. Plato gives his ideals on a perfect society and everything it should include. He basically implies that justice is rightness, and rightness is whatever he feels it should be. He breaks society down into guardians, wage earners, and auxiliaries. Wage earners are people such as surgeons or shoemakers.

In the Myth of the Metals, people are born with gold, silver, or bronze. These metals determine the role each individual will carry out in their state; gold being guardian or governing body, silver being auxiliary or soldier, and bronze being the working class. Because Plato believes everyone is different in nature, it serves as the justification for the Myth of the Metals where the essential parts of society are assigned to individuals at birth. By placing individuals to their highest natural aptitude (guardian, soldier, and worker) they are able to reach human potential and represent the ideal state. This, Plato suggests, is the philosopher’s best method of prescribing a common belief structure within the cave, and more importantly the royal lie to communicate with the non-philosopher.

Plato's view of Justice can be seen in his model of The Tripartite Soul. In this model Plato outlines 3 sectors of his ideal society. This theoretical society is composed of Guardians, Auxiliaries, and Producers. The Guardians were the upper class citizens who had the authority to pass judgment. Guardians were rational and wise, and could participate and become involved in politics. The Auxiliaries were positioned as courageous citizens who helped preserve the spirit and emotion of a society by "protecting and serving" much like a modern day public works department or police and fire squad. In the lowest tier of Plato's ideal society were the Producers, whose job it was to create. The Producers were to use temperance in their lives, for they were classified as appetitive souls who could easily succumb to bodily desires. The Producers were to practice asceticism, which is the eradication of bodily desires.

Plato?s view of Justice can be seen in his model of The Tripartite Soul. In this model Plato outlines 3 sectors of his ideal society. This theoretical society is composed of Guardians, Auxiliaries, and Producers. The Guardians were the upper class citizens who had the authority to pass judgment. Guardians were rational and wise, and could participate and become involved in politics. The Auxiliaries were positioned as courageous citizens who helped preserve the spirit and emotion of a society by ?protecting and serving? much like a modern day public works department or police and fire squad. In the lowest tier of Plato?s ideal society were the Producers, whose job it was to create. The Producers were to use temperance in their lives, for they were classified as appetitive souls who could easily succumb to bodily desires. The Producers were to practice asceticism, which is the eradication of bodily desires.

Plato, in addition to being a philosopher, wrestled at the Olympic level, is one of the classical Greek authors, mathematicians and the founder of The Academy, the first higher learning institute in the west. In short, Plato is one of the great thinkers in history and his contributions to philosophy, ethics and politics are many and varied. One of Plato’s main philosophical ideas is based on the idea that the world

In The Republic Book 3, Plato uses a fictional character named Socrates to argue that people in society must be handpicked to rule as well as also handpicking people to become ruled in order to confirm there will be no disagreements over who is leading. He essentially claims choosing what every citizen does with their life is necessary for creating a steady and working structure in society. This theory of telling people what they were destined to do in life is known as the “noble lie.” It tells everyone a “religious lie” that people all originate from the same place and are siblings of each other, an attempt to convince everyone to get along regardless of their social class. Personally I do not believe that Plato’s arguments in his book are correct and that the use of a “noble lie” would not work in society.

Plato was born into an aristocratic family and later became a disciple of Socrates, eventually witnessing the philosopher 's execution in 399BC, he feared for his safety and went travelling to Italy and Egypt. He returned to Athens after his travels and founded the first European university, the Academy. There, astronomy, biology, mathematics, politics and philosophy were taught, with Aristotle as the most famous student. He also compared the state and the individual, stating they both consisted of three parts: the desiring, the spirited and the rational. If they are all in harmony but ruled by the rational you have justice. He went further to construct many statements that have been quoted throughout history in reference to issues of the times, one being ‘ The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men’

Throughout Plato’s explanations, he utilizes the myth of the three metals to provide justification for the class system which he believes will create a perfect society. As Plato idealizes, each metal represents a specific class in society. ““Appropriately so. Nevertheless, listen to the rest of the story. “All of you in the city are brothers,” we’ll say to them in telling our story, “but the god who made you mixed some gold into those who are adequately equipped to rule, because they are most valuable.””

Ethics: An Ethical claim deals with the branch of philosophy called ethics that focuses on how we should live and defining what is right and wrong. Plato’s ethical claim is hard to pinpoint in his book, “The Republic” because he chooses to largely focus on the fact that Athens is an unjust society and proving how it is unjust rather than focusing on the definition of a just society. Plato creates a picture of what a just society would look like by showing how Athens is an unjust society and what can be done to fix it. In “The Republic”, Plato describes Athens society as a democracy. To which he says, “as long as someone claims to be sympathetic to the general populace, he is honored within this political system” (Plato 297). He also says, “So that’s how he lives, I said. He indulges in every passing desire that each day brings” He goes on to talk about how one day the person is drunk and the next he is being healthy. While sometimes this person is dedicated, sometimes he is lazy. Maybe once and awhile he works for a bit, keeping busy serving the community. Whatever draws their attention, they take an interest to. He continues on to say: “His lifestyle has no rhyme or reason, but he thinks it enjoyable, free, and enviable and he never dispenses with it.” ( Plato 301). When Plato talks about the person who is honored within their political system, he is referring to the fact that even if a person is unqualified and has no previous training or guidance in a trade or position,

This is one of the reasons why he believes that rhetoric is not synonymous with truth. Plato argues against rhetoric because it deals in the material world, which is not the place where ideas exist, nor does it attempt to attain truth. Rhetoric is more or less, the flawed knowledge of the world being manipulated by language for everyday matters, such as politics and law, rather than being used in the pursuit of absolute truths. Rhetoric is therefore useless. He furthers his argument against rhetoric in his dialogue Gorgias.

“Then, under the influence either of poverty or of wealth, workmen and their work are equally liable to degenerate” (Plato 277). On the other hand, poverty causes the craftsmen to develop a rebel attitude. As such, the will resort to evil deeds in order to sustain themselves in the city. Another class in the city is the soldiers. Plato, through his mouthpiece Socrates, argues that the courage of the people of the city lie in their soldiers. However, courage is not a state in which there is lack of fear. Rather it is a state of knowing and persevering in one’s own convictions. However, for this to happen, soldiers need access to good education, which will strengthen their convictions. Education becomes an important part in ensuring that the soldiers understand their role in the city. “Educating [soldiers] in music and gymnastic; we were contriving influences which would prepare them to take the dye of the laws in perfection” (Plato 286). In other words, without education, soldiers would not be able to make decisions that resonate with their beliefs. Thus, lack of fear alone would not serve a full potential as it forms only a smaller portion of what courage constitutes. The third class of the city is the guardians. According to Plato, “Here, then, is a discovery of new evils, I said, against which the guardians will have to watch” (277). Guardians are portrayed as people who have wisdom to watch over

This article by James Allen presents the ideas that Plato presented in his work the Republic. Plato first mentions in the Republic that teaching the love of beauty could be the highest aim of education. Plato did not think of art as we commonly do in today’s world. Plato and the Greeks equated crafts or arts with a special skill set. In fact, art derives from the Latin translation ars. Our western culture back in the day associated the arts with crafts until the idea of “aesthetic” properties. Aesthetics deals with the idea of appreciating beauty. Then Plato next emphasizes the importance of the need for stories to educate children during their childhood. This idea originated from the Greeks in their schooling. There are two types of stories,