The Mythic Project of Plato's Republic

• In Event: Perspectives on Plato's Republic

Abstract

Plato’s choice to end the Republic with the Myth of Er has alternately disappointed and baffled readers – a tangle of sentiments most famously captured in recent decades in Julia Annas’ evaluation of the myth as a "lame and messy ending to an otherwise impressively unified book." I argue that the Myth of Er is most intelligible if it is read as the third part of a continuous inquiry that begins with the Myth of Metals and continues with the Allegory of the Cave. When the Myth of Er is read in conjunction with the other major myths of the Republic, several new observations come to light. First, it shares an identical plot structure with the Myth of Metals and the Allegory of the Cave, both of which recount the experience of being delivered out of the earth during sleep and into a different world. Second, it also addresses the subject of these two earlier myths, which concern the effect of education on the nature of an individual.

All three major myths of the Republic sustain a common project of defining what nature stands for in Plato’s ideal city. This project, articulated in myths, is deeply entwined with the central political-philosophical concern of educating the philosophers of Plato’s ideal city. I argue that the myths of the Republic demonstrate the potential of myth to create new epistemic spaces that supply the background conditions for becoming a philosopher in Plato’s sense.

Author

• Tae-Yeoun Keum, Harvard University