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Originally Posted by pennywise121
i am rather interested in this A. C. Grayling fellow, if only for one simple thing. Plato did not believe that lies infect the soul of the lier. a significant portion of the Republic was set aside to describe the process of "noble lies" that must be told in order to maintain society, and indeed to fulfill one's praxis and be a good (just) ruler. if any of you are interested in this question, see plato's myth of the metals in the republic, and to a lesser degree, the tale of the ring of gyges.
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Plato did indeed say what Grayling attributes to him;
"False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil."
-Plato, Dialogues, Phaedo
http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/24203.html
But you are correct in your statments about "noble lies". I think Plato would respond to such accusations of a tension by 'boxing clever' as Grayling says.
I don't think that Plato wanted outright falsehoods told to the citiziens. Rather the 'noble lies' would have consisted of myths and stories, which while not literally true, carried an underlying 'moral' which was a truth of a kind.
Or maybe I'm wrong and Plato did indeed contradict himself.