The Noble Lie: Plato’s Republic, Book 3
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Description
Plato was a philosopher in ancient Athens in the fifth and fourth centuries B.C. He wrote dialogues that depicted Socrates, also an ancient Athenian philosopher, in conversation with various historical and invented figures. The Republic is the most famous of those texts, and the idea of a “Noble Lie” is one of the proposals in the Republic’s political philosophy that took flight beyond its pages. The Noble Lie, as Socrates calls it, is a tool to be deployed for the sake of securing social harmony and willing coherence with the strict hierarchy of classes that constitutes an ideal city. Only a ruler can ever tell such a lie, Socrates warns, for rulers in the ideal city are truth lovers (i.e. philosophers) and are thus uniquely capable of wielding falsehood for bringing about good, beautiful, and true ends.
Publication Date
2025
Publisher
The Philosophy Teaching Library
Keywords
Plato, The Republic, The Noble Lie, Honesty
Disciplines
History of Philosophy
Recommended Citation
McDavid, Brennan. 2025. “The Noble Lie: Plato’s Republic, Book 3.” The Philosophy Teaching Library. Edited by Robert Weston Siscoe, <https://philolibrary.crc.nd.edu/article/the-noble-lie/>.
Peer Reviewed
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