Zack Olander - Plato and Myth

 Since we are taking a philosophy class about myth, I thought it would be relevant to discuss a little about Plato and what he thought about mythtelling. In the Republic, Plato endorses a view that myth and poetry should be banned from the ideal state. For Plato, people shouldn't be wasting time telling stories and instead doing things like philosophy. However Plato himself sometimes uses myths to illustrate his points, like the Allegory of the Cave, or the myth of Atlantis. Why would Plato one the one hand say that myths shouldn't be allowed and then on the other tell them?

I will confess there is a lot about Plato that I don't know, and maybe he gives an answer to this question somewhere, but this inconsistency about him always bothered me, especially since I myself love mythology. I wonder if maybe he even realized what he was doing on this point. But I suppose I may never know.

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