2011-05-12

Noble lie - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

In politics a noble lie is a myth or untruth, often, but not invariably, of a religious nature, knowingly told by an elite to maintain social harmony. The noble lie is a concept originated by Plato as described in The Republic. A noble lie, although it may benefit all parties, is different from a white lie since a white lie does not cause discord if uncovered whereas noble lies are usually of a nature such that they would do so.[citation needed]

Contents

[hide]

[edit] Plato's Republic

Main article: The Republic (Plato)

The "noble lie" (also translated as "magnificent myth")[1] is a fictional account that Plato's Socrates gives for the origin of the three classes in his proposed republic. He talks of a stratified society, where the populace is told a tale of how all citizens are brothers born of the same mother-earth, but different kinds of people are constituted of different types of metal.[2]

Rulers have gold in them, auxiliaries have silver, and farmers have bronze and iron. Most children of rulers have gold, but some will have silver or bronze and would be demoted to lower classes, whereas some farmers or auxiliaries would be born with silver or gold and promoted.

Plato's Socrates claims that even though this tale would be literally false, if the people believed it, an orderly and cohesive society would result as the story would explain the origin and importance of the three classes and would make them care more for the city and for their fellow citizens. This is his noble lie "gennaion pseudos".[3]

[edit] Modern views on noble lies

[edit] Karl Popper

Main article: Karl Popper

Karl Popper accused Plato of trying to base religion on a noble lie as well. In The Open Society and Its Enemies, Popper remarks, “It is hard to understand why those of Plato’s commentators who praise him for fighting against the subversive conventionalism of the Sophists, and for establishing a spiritual naturalism ultimately based on religion, fail to censure him for making a convention, or rather an invention, the ultimate basis of religion.” Religion for Plato is a noble lie, at least if we assume that Plato meant all of this sincerely, not cynically. Popper finds Plato's conception of religion to have been very influential in subsequent thought.[4]

[edit] Leo Strauss

Main article: Leo Strauss

Strauss noted that thinkers of the first rank, going back to Plato, had raised the problem of whether good and effective politicians could be completely truthful and still achieve the necessary ends of their society. By implication, Strauss asks his readers to consider whether it is true that noble lies have no role at all to play in uniting and guiding the polis. Are myths needed to give people meaning and purpose and to ensure a stable society? Or can men dedicated to relentlessly examining, in Nietzsche's language, those "deadly truths," flourish freely? Thus, is there a limit to the political, and what can be known absolutely? In The City and Man, Strauss discusses the myths outlined in Plato's Republic that are required for all governments. These include a belief that the state's land belongs to it even though it was likely acquired illegitimately and that citizenship is rooted in something more than the accidents of birth.

[edit] Desmond Lee

"Plato has been criticized for his Foundation Myth as if it were a calculated lie. That is partly because the phrase here translated 'magnificent myth' (p.414b) has been conventionally mistranslated 'noble lie'; and this has been used to support the charge that Plato countenances manipulation by propaganda. But the myth is accepted by all three classes, Guardians included. It is meant to replace the national traditions which any community has, which are intended to express the kind of community it is, or wishes to be, its ideals, rather than to state matters of fact."[1]

[edit] Sea of Faith

Main article: Sea of Faith

The Sea of Faith Network (SoF) aims are "Exploring and promoting religious faith as a human creation..."[5]

Although arguably not an organisation based on the noble lie, many of their members no longer believe, but continue to espouse religious beliefs for positive social control and continue to hold positions in many religious organizations and various church groups.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Plato: The Republic, Penguin Classics, translated by Desmond Lee, p177
  2. ^ Book 3, Sections 414-7
  3. ^ Plato (427? BC-347? BC), Translated by Benjamin Jowett (1817-1893). "The Republic". Project Gutenberg. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1497/1497-h/1497-h.htm. "How then may we devise one of those needful falsehoods of which we lately spoke—just one royal lie which may deceive the rulers, if that be possible, and at any rate the rest of the city?"  The phrase "noble lie" does not appear in Jowett's translation, but the Greek original speaks of "a contrivance for one of those needful falsehoods we were just talking about: some noble (gennaion) one. . ." (414b-c)
  4. ^ Positive Liberty » Open Society VI: On Religion as a Noble Lie
  5. ^ Sea of Faith homepage

[edit] External links

via en.wikipedia.org

Posted via email from projectbrainsaver

Posted by at