Plato’s Art

Abstract

Plato’s text might look different—we ourselves might come to see it differently—if we were to pay greater attention to the “particulars,” viewing them asThoreau would, with wondering eyes. We could start with what Plato has Adeimantus say in this passage. Socrates challenge may appear to be purely theoretical: define justice and prove that, even under the worst possible circumstances, it is always better to be just. Like many philosophical problems, this may seem hypothetical and abstract, not a problem we really face in the course of our lives. Why would I need reasons for being just even under the worst possible circumstances if, like Cephalus, I am already happy being a good person and doing the right thing?

When all such sayings about the attitudes of gods and humans to virtue and vice are so often repeated, Socrates, what effect do you suppose they have on the souls of young people? I mean those who are clever and are able to flit from one of these sayings to another, so to speak, and gather from them an impression of what sort of person he should be and of how best to travel the road of life … The various sayings suggest that there is no advantage in my being just if I’m not also thought just, while the troubles and penalties of being just are apparent. But they tell me that an unjust person, who has secured for himself a reputation for justice, lives the life of a god. Since then, “opinion forcibly overwhelms truth” and “controls happiness,” as the wise men say, I must surely turn entirely to it. I should create a façade of illusory virtue around me to deceive those who come near …

—Plato, Republic