Seminar paper Book X

Kyle McAlpin

Dr. Thomas

PHI 360

25 April 2016

            Plato’s use of the Afterlife to Appeal to the Masses

            In The Republic of Plato, Plato writes a dialogue between Socrates and the interlocutors that discusses the ultimate questions: what is justice, and if justice itself is better than injustice? The Republic analogously answers what justice is in the soul through Socrates’ examination of justice in the city, and his defense of justice against injustice. Book X ends with a discussion between Socrates and Glaucon about the immortality of the soul and how the gods favor the just. Plato, using Socrates’ interlocutors akin for his own audience, writes that the gods favor the just because he realizes that the only way the average person will seek perfect justice in the soul is if there is an otherworldly reward for doing so. Most humans will never become a philosopher as it goes against human nature and in mentioning the Myth of Er, Plato, just as those in the cave, is casting a shadow by adding the reward of the gods to justice.

            Justice is the highest virtue a soul can achieve and it is only possible if the soul is able to harmonize its calculating, spirited, and desiring parts. Socrates’ objective is to teach how justice in the soul can be achieved analogously through the search of justice in the city. Justice is something that, “we like both for its own sake and for what comes out of it” (Book II 357 c). Plato uses Socrates’ views in The Republic of Plato to attempt to create a more just and happy city: “in founding the city we are not looking to the exceptional happiness of any one group among us but… that of the city as a whole” (Book IV 420b). For a city to be just, the citizens must seek out justice in themselves; however, most humans refuse to follow philosophy. As a means to get the average person to consider justice, a reward must be presented.

            After answering what justice is and whether or not justice is in itself better than injustice, Plato chooses to end the Republic with the discussion of the immortality of the soul: “Therefore, since it’s not destroyed by a single evil-either its own or an alien-it’s plainly necessary that it be always and, if it is always, that it be immortal” (Book X 611a).  By stating that the soul is immortal, Plato is setting up his premise that there exists an afterlife and a reincarnation of sorts. Once he establishes the concept of an afterlife Plato can then build off of his idea that the gods are watching man, “And if they don’t escape notice, the one would be dear to the gods and the other hateful, as we also agreed at the beginning” (Book X 612e). If the gods exist and care whether or not a man is just, and there is an afterlife, both provide a reason for the average man who is not a philosopher king to turn towards justice. Some of the unjust in a society would start to analyze themselves and their soul, and seek harmony of their soul if it meant that they would please the gods and be rewarded in the afterlife.

            Plato goes into further detail about the afterlife and how the just soul is rewarded in the Myth of Er, which tells the account of a Pamphylian warrior’s journey through the afterlife after being killed in battle. A key point in this myth is that it sets up the concept of there being two different paths a soul could be sent depending on how just it was: “He said that when his soul departed, it made a journey in the company of many, and they came to a certain demonic place, where there were two openings in the earth next to one another, and, again, two in the heaven, above and opposite the others” (Book X 614b-c). This separation of a good and bad afterlife provides another reason besides those Plato had previously mentioned in The Republic as to why justice is favorable. A stronger motivation for a human to follow justice than the promise of a heaven is the fear being in hell for a thousand years: “For all the unjust deeds they had done anyone and all the men to whom they had done injustice, they had paid the penalty for every one in turn, ten times for each” (Book X 615a). There will always be those in a society that completely neglect justice, but Plato puts this form of a bad afterlife to try and stray anyone away from falling into injustice without hesitation or fear of punishment.

            The last part of the Myth of Er tells of what happens to the soul once it has served its thousand years in heaven with the just or in hell with the unjust souls. Once the sentence was fulfilled all the souls were brought together and given lots at random to choose their next life:

This is the beginning of another death bringing cycle for the mortal race. A demon will not select you, but you will choose a demon. Let him who gets the first lot make the first choice of a life to which he will be bound by necessity. Virtue is without master; as he honors or dishonors her, each will have more or less of her. The blame belongs to him who chooses; god is blameless. (Book X 617d-e)

When choosing its next life every soul will choose a new life based on what it had experienced and learned in its previous life or incarnation. Often times, the souls that we rewarded with heaven chose hastily, without fully considering the lot choice. They chose the slots that seemed virtuous on the surface, but that really lead to tyranny. The laborers, on the other hand, since they had experienced suffering on earth, were more likely to carefully choose a truly virtuous lot. The incarnation cycle of the soul leads to a “exchange of evils and goods for most souls” (Book X 619d).

Souls would then theoretically choose the life that they think will provide them with the most happiness, except for the philosophers, who would choose a new life that allows for the continuation of the pursuit of wisdom or a just life. Human nature is to give into desire and it is abnormal for a human to completely bypass desire for wisdom. Even if a soul was warned that it was making the wrong choice, it would still make the choice based on the desires it had in its previous life. Some souls, such as Odysseus’, do make good slot choices, but these are different from the slot choice a philosopher king would make. Odysseus’ soul chose “from memory of its former labors it had recovered from love of honor; it went around for a long time looking for the life of a private man who minds his own business” (Book X 620c). The souls who chose well are the ones that analyzes their past lives and injustices, and chose a slot that will provide them a more virtuous life of justice. The philosopher king however, would chose the slot that would lead to the greatest justice, the continuation of wisdom. They would have to keep to the “upper road” and forever philosophize in order to stay just. Plato says that God is blameless because even if a soul regretted its decision, there is no one to blame but itself.  A complete harmonization of the soul to where one would become a philosopher king is highly unlikely, humans are flawed and will always give into temptation.

            The Myth of Er teaches, through the soul’s lot choice, that most humans follow whatever they believe will provide them with the greatest amount of happiness. They will believe that the gods favor the just, if it means that they will experience happiness in the afterlife. Human beings exhibit the characteristics of those imprisoned in the “Allegory of the Cave” and it is next to impossible that one will truly ever escape and become a philosopher. Humans typically choose the path in life that is easiest or produces the most pleasure: “And if they were somehow able to get their hands on and kill the man who attempts to release and lead up, wouldn’t they kill him?” (Book VII 517a). Plato acknowledges that human nature is to resist the philosophical awakening even if that meant living in a world of shadows, content playing the game of acquiring false knowledge. If ever freed, the prisoner from the cave will be exposed to truth and wisdom, but he never explains how the first man is released or breaks free from the chains. Prisoners in the cave would choose to stay there forever if it was not for an accidental freeing. The last part of chapter X was included in The Republic because Plato wants society to try and search for justice but he also realizes how unlikely that is, and how they need another reason, besides wisdom, to even consider justice.

            By telling the Myth of Er and creating an afterlife in which the gods judge men based on how just they were, Plato is casting a shadow on his audience just as the ones behind the fire do in the cave. In the cave there are people who are creating the shadows for those imprisoned: “Then also see along this wall human beings carrying all sorts of artifacts, which project above the wall” (Book VII 514b). Plato, by giving this ulterior motive for justice, is appealing to the masses because he wants society to at least try to be just but understands that only a few will every truly harmonize their soul and become a philosopher. Trying to harmonize the three aspects of the soul will make an individual better even if they never attain the level of harmonization of a philosopher king, and if everyone is attempting justice then the city will be stronger. However, by appealing to the masses Plato is, in a sense, imprisoning them into a new cave where he is the one creating false images. If someone blindly tries to follow justice because of the reward it will give them, then they are being imprisoned into a cave of justice. The only way to escape this new cave is if a true just philosopher frees them. However, just as in the first cave, the average man will refuse to be enlightened and will hold onto the idea that if they try to be just they will get the favor of the gods.

            Another approach to this is that in The Republic, Socrates’ is trying to teach Glaucon that it is very possible for humans to harmonize their souls. That it is possible through questioning, just as Socrates did, to get individuals to fully look inward and become a philosopher king. Although only the guardians can become philosopher kings in Plato’s argument, if Glaucon can move past desires and do it, so can all the interlocutors: “Unless… the philosophers rule as kings or those now called kings and chiefs genuinely and adequately philosophize” (Book V 473d). The only was a just city could exist is if the rulers philosophize and follow wisdom. Humans although flawed, once freed from the cave will grow to love wisdom and go back and free the others.  

            Book X of The Republic of Plato presents an ulterior motive as to why a human should be just. In stating that the soul is immortal and that the gods are judgmental, Plato is appealing to the average human by giving the incentive of a heaven. To get the masses to even consider justice and try to harmonize their soul, he needed an otherworldly reward. He must do so because philosophy completely goes against human nature, which is to give into desire. In writing the Myth of Er, Plato creates a new cave of justice, in which he is the one creating the shadows, and his prisoners are exposed to more philosophical truth than they were before.