The paradigm of heaven and the paradigm of constellation: the philosophy and the poetry in Plato’s The Republic

Abstract

This work is an essay about Πλατωνοσ Πολιτεια, Platonos Politeia – Plato’s Politeia, best known as The Republic. It will examine aspects of his argument about the formation of the human soul by philosophy and by poetry. In this sense, in general, will address the problematic that the hellenistic philosopher relates to the nature of the poetic in the midst of a utopian ideal of political educational establishment of a city. In short, from what the author says, Homer does not belong to a πολις. Pretty far from the platonic theory that conceives truth as a supreme good to be the target of life and that should support human knowledge, poetry, which is removed, according to Plato, from the essential qualities of truth, must be replaced by philosophy - or have his hedonistic purposes removed out in favor of what the philosopher sees as ideal for the formation of a polis. As an argument, Plato develops ethical, moral and epistemological theories, which we will cover on this work.