Politics of the Soul in Plato’s Republic

Abstract

Although it serves as the ontological and axiological ground for Plato’s political proposal, the tripartite soul theory will remain crippled if we ignore Plato’s criticism of pre-Platonic cultural practices (especially of imitative poetry) and the influence of those cultural practices on the psychological configuration of individuals. With this aspect in mind, this paper has two main objectives: (i) to place Plato’s psychology in the whole context of politics of the soul, with emphasis on the objective sense of this expression (i.e. politics for the soul); and (ii) to emphasize the connection between Plato’s theory of the soul in the Republic and his criticism of imitative poetry in books II, III and X. I will try to show that artistic representation is both a psychological and a political experience: a psycho-political experience which involves metaphysical, epistemological, psychological, and moral dimensions. What is the effect of imitative poetry on human soul? And to what extent does this effect compromise Plato’s psycho-political project?