Plato's Republic: the Elites have the right to use lies such as Religion for public good

In Plato's Cosmology we saw that there were 3 realms (for Plato they are not definite truths but likely myths used to justify order in the City):

• the material realm
• the transcendental realm
• the ultimate One (God) beyond the transcendental realm

In his Ideal State this will translate into three "souls" from lowest to highest corresponding to these social classes:

• appetitive (iron blood): the artisans only whereas peasants are not considered "citizens" at all.
• spirited (silver blood): the "guardian" men or women whose job is to protect the Ideal State from its enemies. They live in common and their children belong to the Ideal State,
• rational (gold blood): the Elite Philosopher Kings drawn from the Guardians. They are the elite few who have fully "grasped" the "transcendentals", i.e., the One, the True and the Good. This pure knowledge is "grasped" while they are in the process of doing mathematics using the "dialectic".

The first lie is about Religion. Plato deems the need of "Religion" not for spiritual reason since it is based on "likely myths" but to ensure that the elites will be accepted as the rulers. Basically, citizens will have to believe that:

- gods exist and the elites are their descendants

- gods and so the elites care for the world

- gods and so the elites cannot be "bought" or corrupted by men's gifts or prayers.

The lie is justified by the public good direct quotes from Plato's Republic:

A. The Royal Lie I; Utilitarianism

SOCRATES: Again, truth should be highly valued: if, as we were saying, a lie is useless to the gods, and useful only as a "medicine" to men, then the use of such "medicines" should be restricted to "physicians"; private individuals have no business with them.

ADEIMANTUS: Clearly not.

SOCRATES: Then if any one at all is to have the privilege of lying, the rulers of the State should be the persons; and they, in their dealings either with enemies or with their own citizens, may be allowed to lie for the public good. But nobody else should meddle with anything of the kind; and although the rulers have this privilege, for a private man to lie to them in return is to be deemed a more heinous fault than for the patient or the pupil of a gymnasium not to speak the truth about his own bodily illnesses to the physician or to the trainer, or for a sailor not to tell the captain what is happening [next page, Book III, p. 652] about the ship and the rest of the crew, and how things are going with himself or his fellow sailors.

ADEIMANTUS: Most true.

SOCRATES: If, then, the ruler catches anybody beside himself lying in the State, "Any of the craftsmen, whether he be priest or physician or carpenter", he will punish him for introducing a practice which is equally subversive and destructive of ship or State.

ADEIMANTUS: Most certainly ... if our idea of the State is ever carried out.

SOCRATES: ... Then we shall approve such language as that of Diomede in Homer, "Friend, sit still and obey my word.", and the verses which follow, "the Greeks marched breathing prowess, ... in silent awe of their leaders," and other sentiments of the same kind.

ADEIMANTUS: We shall.