Méthodes d'interprétation des mythes chez Platon

Fabienne Baghdassarian

doi:10.11606/issn.1981-9471.v8i1p76-104

Abstract

This paper tries to determine how Plato expects his philosophical myths to be read and interpreted. First, it studies Plato’s disapproval of two exegetical strategies about traditional myths (allegorical interpretation and rationalist interpretation), which highlights the fundamental opposition of these strategies to philosophical research. Then, it intends to determine how the interpretation of Platonic myths can escape these difficulties, in particular thanks to their mimetic status, which transforms the exegesis of myth into a genuine philosophical process. Finally, it tries to understand why, in two historical myths, Plato thinks legitimate to make use of the rationalist perspective.

Highlights

This paper tries to determine how Plato expects his philosophical myths to be read and interpreted. It studies Plato’s disapproval of two exegetical strategies about traditional myths, which highlights the fundamental opposition of these strategies to philosophical research
It intends to determine how the interpretation of Platonic myths can escape these difficulties, in particular thanks to their mimetic status, which transforms the exegesis of myth into a genuine philosophical process
Dès lors que l’aspect de la nature humaine que le mythe vise à traduire n’est plus l’immortalité de son âme ou sa parenté au divin, ce par quoi l’homme, en somme, échappe au temps et à la corporéité, mais au contraire ce par quoi il s’y inscrit pleinement à travers l’existence politique qu’il est appelé à mener, on comprend alors que la fiction de l’histoire constitue sans doute le miroir le mieux approprié à susciter la connaissance de soi, c’est-à-dire la connaissance de sa propre situation politique, en donnant à voir, par l’intermédiaire du récit, la nature humaine à l’œuvre dans la cité et les forces psychiques, bonnes ou mauvaises, intellectuelles ou apparentées au corps, qui la traversent