Abstract

As is generally perceived, one of the leading themes in Plato’s Republic is psycho-paideia, education and enculturation of human soul or psyche from a moralistic standpoint. Interestingly, the overall structure of the dialogue as a whole is philosophically framed to address the problem with the soul through a chain of myths or allegories. It commences with the myth of the magic ring of Gyges that is deployed to expose the vulnerable nature of the human soul in the choice between the just and unjust deeds; later on it intermediates with the allegorical tripartition of the soul through the three prominent images of a man, a lion and a many-headed monster, employed to illustrate the complex traits of the soul itself and its possible likes and consequences; and finally, it ends up with the great myth of Er, especially designed to illuminate the postmortem experience of the wandering soul that witnessed how the divinely authorized reward-and-punishment principle is applied to the other afterlife souls, categorized into two broad types known as the just and the unjust. This experience is associated with transmigration in the mystic overtone of the Orphic-Pythagorean tradition. The myth of Er at the end of Plato’s Republic is usually conceived as an eschatological one, set in a philosophical context. It, thus, reveals the relationship between philomythos and phylosophos, and the interaction between myth and philosophy in a creative manner. Engaging and thought-provocating as it is, it is deployed to stir much reflection on the possible aspects of the human soul in terms of justice and injustice. In addition, it well demonstrates how Plato applies it as one of many typical cases to his philosophical discourse and speculative formulation with dramatic effect, mystical import and aesthetic pleasure. Teleologically, the story itself could be treated as a psycho-paideia mythos in principle. It is intended to help cultivate and save the soul through such three ways as the heavenly, the underground, and the philosophical. All this is assumed to feature a kind of poetic wisdom characteristic of Plato’s poetic philosophy as is exemplified in his dialogues. This poetic wisdom lies in such realms as philosophical rewriting of myths, organic contextuality, divine law in a moralized cosmos, symbolic expression of the oneness between absolute necessity and destiny, imaginative participation via mythical experience, and even bricolage intellectue working at cross-levels.