1. PLATO’s MYTH OF ER
A The DYT Production

2. The Republic of Plato
I went down yesterday to the Piraeus with Glaucon the son of Ariston, that I might offer up my prayers to the goddess; and also because I wanted to see how they would celebrate the festival, which was a new thing. I was delighted with the procession of the inhabitants; but that of the Thracians was equally, if not more, beautiful. When we had finished our prayers and viewed the spectacle, we turned toward the city; and at that instant Polemarchus, son of Cephalus, caught sight of us from a distance as we were starting on our way home, and told his servant to run and bid us wait for him. The servant took hold of me by the cloak behind, and said: Polemarchus desires you to wait. So

3. Kατέβην χθὲς εἰς Πειραιᾶ
I went down to the Piraeus yesterday with Glaukon, son of Ariston, to make my prayers to the Goddess and wanting to see how they would hold her feast, this being the first time it was held.

4. The Republic of Plato Ten-volume dialogue on to rule a just city
Fraught with ETHICAL LEADERSHIP
Insanely influential from the very time its writing
Dialogue of Socrates and two of Plato’s brothers
No detail is omitted:
What is justice? What is the best city?
What is the best form of constitution?
What qualifies leaders to be leaders?
What is reality?
Why should people want to be just?
Why all these questions? So

5. Piraeus in 5th Century BC

6. Piraeus in 5th Century BC

7. Pre-Socratic Philosophy
Philosophia = the love of wisdom = 600 BC
Thales (water), Anaximander (apeiron), Anaximedes (air)
Pythagorean school = mathematically harmonious life
Heraclitus = logos, flux; earth, water, air, fire
Democritus = atomic theory
Diogenes (contemporary) = Cynic
Philosophers congregated in schools and talked rubbish
Common people did not care for them So

8. Socrates in the Clouds So

9. Socrates and Plato

10. Socrates (470-399 BC) Father, Sophroniscus, was a sculptor
Mother, Phaenarete, was a midwife
Intermittently employed stone mason
ENGAGED CITIZENSHIP: fought in army
ENGAGED CITIZENSHIP: served in assembly
Applied the elenchos or “Socratic Method”
More eristic than constructive
Annoyed Athenians of all sides
Aristophanes wrote “The Clouds” about him
Tried for atheism and corrupting youth, 399 BC
Drank hemlock and died

11. Plato (428-347 BC) Follower of Socrates – his obvious major influence
Old question: how much is Socrates, and how much Plato?
Other influences: Pythagoras, Heraclitus
Founder of the Academy – first Western higher education
Teacher of Aristotle
Traveled to Italy, Sicily, Cyrene and Ancient Egypt
Returned to Athens around 40 and began writing
Traveled to Syracuse under Dionysius I, makes friends with his brother Dion, but gets sold into slavery
Dionysius II comes to power; Dion calls for Plato’s help but even Plato can’t make a philosopher king out of him.
Dionysius II boiled in blood in Inferno 12 for his violence.

12. The Republic as a katabasis
The first word in the book is Κατέβην
The trip from Athens to Piraeus is about six miles along the Long Walls, with a long slope down to the Piraeus
Piraeus is a seaport, and therefore much more rough and rowdy than Athens
Socrates is going down to the real people to tackle a real issue: what is justice, and what is the best city?
Katabasis imagery in the Allegory of the Cave
Katabasis imagery in the Myth of Er

13. Socratic Method, The Almost like midwifery – working out the TRVTH
Mother, Phaenarete, was a midwife
Ask simple questions of self-appointed experts
Make the experts look like monkeys
Supposedly, TRVTH is the result.
Supposedly, Socrates was wisest man in Greece
Only because he knew he knew nothing
Most dialogues really didn’t solve much
The “solutions” are mostly Plato’s addition
Not so in the Republic, however

14. Socratic Method, The Citizen: Socrates, you are really annoying.
Socrates: Interesting argument. Can you tell me what is 'annoying'?
Citizen: The way you ask all these stupid questions, that's annoying.
Socrates: Would you say that a fly buzzing by your ear is also annoying?
Citizen: Yes, I would say that is annoying.
Socrates: But you define annoyance as asking questions, and a fly doesn't ask questions, so do you really know what annoyance is?
Citizen: I guess I don't know how to explain it.
Socrates: If you don't know what annoyance really is well enough to explain it, how can you be certain, then, that I am annoying?
Citizen: I am going to scream

15. Principles of Plato’s Republic
Justice is best considered in the context of a city
Four main virtues: wisdom, courage, justice, temperance
No private property, poetry, or fiction
“Guardian” class of men and women serve at age 50
Ruled over by a philosopher-king
Object = bring the city and its people to the Good
Allegory of the Cave
Timocracy, oligarchy, democracy, democracy lead to tyranny
Tyranny was an old Greek tradition,
Tyranny was the opposite of philosophical life style
How to motivate citizens to avoid tyranny?

16. Allegory
Metaphor = uses a image, an object, or a story to represent a complex or obscure idea
“Life is like a box of chocolates.” – F. Gump
Allegory is an extended metaphor, usually a story, in which characters can stand for complex or obscure ideas.
Can also be associated with the “parable”
Parable of the Good Shepherd (Luke15.3-7) explains God’s love for all creation
Plato’s Allegory of the Cave (Republic 7)
O Brother, Where Art Thou?

17. Allegory of the Cave

18. Music Break

19. Plato, Republic 10: Grand Finale
Boot out the poets! Even Homer!
The poetic education is the worst education
It focuses on the “interesting” and the “spectacular”
It’s as bad as that stuff on the back wall of the Cave
The emotions caused by poetry are dangerous
Citizens might feel that life is like poetry
(or like in the movies, or books, or reality shows)
The ideal city is not a bunch of KARDASHIANS
Citizens need to learn about life as it really is
Therefore, citizens need philosophical education
Citizens also need motivation to lead moral lives.

20. The Katabasis of Er Er is a soldier who dies in battle
Bodies of dead are collected for burning after 10 days
Er’s body has not decomposed!!!!
Two days later, Er comes back to life and tells his story
Learns of the afterlife and of reincarnation
Visits the USED CAR LOT OF SOULS
Acquires Celestial Cultural Competence
Comes back to life to report on his visions
Practices Cosmic Community Engagement

21. Judgement Process At death, the body perishes in the usual fashion
Souls come to a place between heaven and earth
They are judged on their life’s deeds and misdeeds
Held strictly accountable for individual actions
Good souls go to heaven for 1000 years
Bad souls go beneath earth for 1000 years
Much more complex than the Homeric version
Homeric version: body greater than soul
Platonic version: soul greater than body
Er also sees souls returning from their 1000 years
Heaven dwellers happy, earth dwellers beaten up

22. Schematically Speaking

23. THE USED CAR LOT O’SOULS
The body is mortal and the soul is immortal
Souls are judged on their life’s deeds and misdeeds
Souls are rewarded or punished for 1000 years
Supposedly this gives time for reflection
Newly returned souls must select next lives
Souls select from physical appearances of bodies
Souls can choose human or animal lives
Once a life has been selected, that’s it
The soul must live its selected life as best it can
The soul bears FULL responsibility for its actions
No griping, no whining: deal with it

24. Hooptius Maximus

25. THE USED CAR LOT O’SOULS
The returned souls see a wide range of lives
But they can only judge upon the bodies they see
What have they learned over the last 1000 years?
First chooser picks a TYRANT: bad career move
Fun to be a living tyrant: a dead one, not so much
Orpheus picks a swan (didn’t like women)
Agamemnon chooses to be an eegull
Odysseus chooses to be just a regular dude
After choosing, the souls proceed to river Lethe
Then they get reborn… good luck!

26. Cosmic Cultural Competence
As ever, evil is punished and justice rewarded
People are bad because they choose to be bad
People are ____ because they choose to be ____
Only philosophy can teach people to live ethically
Obviously, an immortal soul should live ethically
Get it right for enough lives and maybe win the jackpot
Not spelled out at all
Still a major eschatological breakthrough
Body = transitory, soul = immortal
Bound to have consequences for philosophy
Bound to have consequences for religion

27. Eschatological impact of the Republic
Soul more important than body, not other way around
People should want to be just because justice = good
The Myth of Er is meant to compel just behavior
Granted, most people preferred religious spirituality
Still, influential on Greek and Roman political thought
Influential on the katabasis in Vergil’s Aeneid (25 BC)
Influential on the katabasis in Dante’s Inferno (1320 AD)
Influential on Sir Thomas More’s Utopia (1616 AD)

28. Utopia by Sir Thomas More - 1616

29. Utopia - 1616 Written by Sir Thomas More (later St. Thomas More) 1616
Translated into English 1551
Executed 1535 for opposing marriage to Anne Boleyn
Name from ou + topia = Greek for “No Place”
Became a synonym for a perfect society (vs. dystopia)
Actually more of a satire on contemporary society
Draws heavily (and parodically) on Plato’s Republic
No lawyers, both sexes educated, religious freedom
Atheists are tolerated but never trusted
Atheists only go by their own principles, not God’s