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Plato

People · c. 428–348 BCE · documented

The source text of the trunk. Rule by a trained guardian class, secured by a story taught to the young, is set down plainly two and a half thousand years before there was a profession to carry it out.12

Documented core

In the Republic Plato orders the city by a trained guardian class and equips it with a founding falsehood — the noble lie of Book III (414b–415c), the myth of the metals, by which citizens are told they were formed in the earth with gold, silver, or bronze in their souls, so that each accepts the station he is held to fit. Plato is explicit that the story is taught from childhood. In Book V he goes further and dissolves the guardians’ own families, their children raised in common and parentage deliberately obscured, so that the city may form the young directly rather than compete with the household for them.

Role in the thesis

The trunk’s origin, cited as itself and never generalised into a plot: the doctrine that a knowing few should shape the many — if need be through myth, and especially through the child — stated at the head of Western political thought, and recurring after it by publication rather than by any relay.

  1. Plato, Republic, Bk III, 414b–415c — the noble lie (γενναῖον ψεῦδος) / myth of the metals, taught from childhood ↩︎

  2. Plato, Republic, Bk V, 457c–466d — the guardians' children raised in common, the private family dissolved by design ↩︎

Edges — what this node connects to. Hover (or tap) to preview each.

Referenced by. Where this entry is cited in the reading — hover any to read it in place.

  • Two Testimonies — “Plato states it without embarrassment.”
  • Humanity as Administrable Stock — “Plato's Republic installs a guardian class and hands it a founding myth: citizens are told they were formed in the earth with gold, silver, or bronze in their souls, so that each keeps the station he is held to fit, and the story, in Plato's own framing, is taught from childhood.”
  • The Administrators — “Plato's Republic is governed by a guardian class that rules through a founding myth — the noble lie — taught to the young, and that dissolves the family among the guardians so the city can raise their children in common.”
  • The Trunk — “Plato states it without embarrassment.”
  • The Door Someone Else Walks Through — “Plato's city is governed by a trained guardian class, and to secure it he dissolves the guardians' own families: their children are raised in common, parentage deliberately obscured, so that the city can form the young directly instead of competing with the household for them.”