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The Republic

Works · c. 375 BCE · documented

The dialogue in which the trunk is first written down.12

Documented core

The Republic orders the just 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, taught from childhood so that each citizen accepts the station he is held to fit. In Book V the guardians’ own families are dissolved, their children raised in common, so the city may form the young directly. The management of the many by a story aimed at the child is in the source text.

Role in the thesis

The primary the trunk is read off. A later mind that builds on it — the Royal Society off Bacon, the Fabians off their own genealogy — leaves a paper trail of reading, which is the ordinary way an idea travels and the opposite of a conspiracy.

  1. Plato, Republic, Bk III, 414b–415c — the noble lie / myth of the metals ↩︎

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

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 — “The Republic installs a guardian class and equips it with a founding falsehood: at Book III, 414b–415c, the noble lie, the myth of the metals, by which citizens are told they were formed underground with gold, silver, or bronze in their souls, so that each accepts the station he is held to fit.”
  • 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 — “The Republic installs a 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.”
  • The Door Someone Else Walks Through — “The same move sits in the Republic.”