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Originally Posted by CSflim
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. |
"False words" don't have to mean lies or at least all lies, do they? I haven't read the work from which that quote originates, and therefore don't have any context, but I think "false words" could be interpreted as a certain type of lie, for example.
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"Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions." - Albert Einstein
"Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something." - Plato
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