Images of Justice

Abstract

Gives a close analysis of two of Plato’s most controversial images: the analogy of the soul and state and the suggestion that the rulers will have to lie to the citizenry, including especially the myth of the metals. These are understood as images of justice (the form), and their limitations as images are revealed. The analogy of the soul and state conceives of each analog as composed of three parts. But the first city Plato has Socrates imagine in the Republic does not have three parts, and then when the arguments for partitioning the soul are given, the principle Socrates offers for finding different parts is misapplied. Alternative formulations of this principle bring other problems, and Plato’s own conclusion of his arguments seems to leave open the possibility that there may be even more parts of the soul than those he has identified. As for Plato’s lying rulers, the apparent problem derives from Plato having a very different conception of truth than the two-valued conception familiar to contemporary philosophers. Plato’s rulers seek to establish the best images of this kind of truth.