Plato and the Mythic Tradition in Political Thought

Plato and the Mythic Tradition in Political Thought

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English | 336 pages | Belknap Press: An Imprint of Harvard University Press (December 8, 2020) | 0674984641 | PDF | 18.58 Mb

An ambitious reinterpretation and defense of Plato’s basic enterprise and influence, arguing that the power of his myths was central to the founding of philosophical rationalism.

Plato’s use of myths―the Myth of Metals, the Myth of Er―sits uneasily with his canonical reputation as the inventor of rational philosophy. Since the Enlightenment, interpreters like Hegel have sought to resolve this tension by treating Plato’s myths as mere regrettable embellishments, irrelevant to his main enterprise. Others, such as Karl Popper, have railed against the deceptive power of myth, concluding that a tradition built on Platonic foundations can be neither rational nor desirable.