Plato and the Other Companions of Sokrates, 3rd ed. Volume 4

Note 56 — Chapter XXXVII · REPUBLIC — REMARKS ON THE PLATONIC COMMONWEALTH.

Reading edition

Plato, Republic, x. pp. 598-599. When Plato attacks the poets so severely on the ground of their departure from truth and reality, and their false representations of human life — the poets might have retorted, that Plato departed no less from truth and reality in many parts of his Republic, and especially in his panegyric upon Justice; not to mention the various mythes which we read in Republic, Phædon, Phædrus, Politikus, &c.

Plato’s fictions are indeed ethical, intended to serve a pedagogic purpose; Homer's fictions are æsthetical, addressed to the fancy and emotions.

But it is not fair in Plato, the avowed champion of useful fiction, to censure the poets on the ground of their departing from truth.

Return to CHAPTER XXXVII. REPUBLIC — REMARKS ON THE PLATONIC COMMONWEALTH.Return to GENERAL INDEX. (continued 2)Return to GENERAL INDEX. (continued 2)Return to GENERAL INDEX. (continued 2)Return to GENERAL INDEX. (continued 2)