Though most of Plato's Republic is dedicated to finding ultimate truth via the Forms and establishing the utopia Kallipolis, Plato also explores the importance of falsehood and deception as necessary to constructing an ideal city. Through Socrates, Plato explains the difference between his concept of a true or pure falsehood and of a noble falsehood or a “falsehood of words”:
I simply mean that to be false to one's soul about the things are, to be ignorant and to have and hold falsehood there, is what everyone would least of all accept, for everyone hates a falsehood in that place most of all…. This would be most correctly called true falsehood—ignorance in the soul of someone who has been told a falsehood. Falsehood in words is a kind of imitation of this affection in the soul, an image of it that comes into being after it and is not a pure falsehood. (382b) …show more content…
Plato writes that indoctrinating rulers with certain myths and falsehoods1 will be to the benefit of the city. At the same time, his concept of a philosopher-king is based on the idea that a properly educated rulers with a grasp of the theory of forms is able to derive ultimate truth and understanding and thus not need to rule on the basis of rigid prescriptive law. I believe that the idea of using these sorts of falsehoods on rulers, as Plato later describes as “ideal,” as fundamentally incompatible with thee goal of creating effective rulers. On the other hand, I agree with Plato that the use of falsehoods for the masses is essential for maintaining social order he describes in a rigidly stratified
I simply mean that to be false to one's soul about the things are, to be ignorant and to have and hold falsehood there, is what everyone would least of all accept, for everyone hates a falsehood in that place most of all…. This would be most correctly called true falsehood—ignorance in the soul of someone who has been told a falsehood. Falsehood in words is a kind of imitation of this affection in the soul, an image of it that comes into being after it and is not a pure falsehood. (382b) …show more content…
Plato writes that indoctrinating rulers with certain myths and falsehoods1 will be to the benefit of the city. At the same time, his concept of a philosopher-king is based on the idea that a properly educated rulers with a grasp of the theory of forms is able to derive ultimate truth and understanding and thus not need to rule on the basis of rigid prescriptive law. I believe that the idea of using these sorts of falsehoods on rulers, as Plato later describes as “ideal,” as fundamentally incompatible with thee goal of creating effective rulers. On the other hand, I agree with Plato that the use of falsehoods for the masses is essential for maintaining social order he describes in a rigidly stratified