Abstract
In order to re-examine what role Plato gives to images in the Republic, this chapter argues against modern commentators’ views and demonstrates that for Plato, images represent reality in special ways and that the simile is not simply a didactic method of explaining familiar objects, but is an effective method of inquiry to reveal a reality unknown to us. First it shows that Plato ascribes to images a special role of transforming our souls, by examining the famous story of Gyges’ ring; second, by analysing the simile of the Sun, it shows that images are real in the sense that they reveal to us the world beyond sensible things. These two examples represent two important aspects, namely, a psychological exercise for changing ourselves and an ontological possibility for such images. In order to rehabilitate our conception of the image, the chapter considers views on images by Japanese philosophers, Megumi Sakabe and Toshihiko Izutsu.
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Notes
- 1.
- 2.
See Phdr. 244a-245c, esp. 245a.
- 3.
For example, Robinson (1953, pp. 220–221), discusses ‘incoherence’ in Plato’s treatment of images.
- 4.
Cf. Rep. VI, 509d9-510a4, 511e1-2, VII, 533e3-534a5.
- 5.
Aristotle calls this ‘homonymous’ in Cat. 1, 1a1-6 (though there is another interpretation of the passage) and Metaph. A9, 991a5-8.
- 6.
Cf. IX, 583b5, 586b7-c6 (phantom of Helen), 587c8-10.
- 7.
To prove this, Socrates carefully uses the image of ‘shadow’ (skia), most vividly in the similes of the Line and the Cave: cf. Line, VI, 510a1, e2; Cave, VII, 515a7, b9, c2, d1, 516a6, e7, 517d9, 532b7, c2, 3. The person who comes out of the cave and returns is able to discern images (i.e. shadows) in the cave (the actual word used in VII, 520c3-4 is ‘images’ eidōla), whereas other people are quarrelling with one another over shadows: cf. VII, 520c7 (skiamachein). In Book X, skiagraphia (shadow-painting) is mentioned as deceiving people in the criticism of poets. Cf. X, 602d3. See also a negative comment in VII, 523b6. For skiagraphia, see Keuls (1974, pp. 111–116), and (1978, pp. 81–83): the apparent virtues are called skiagraphia of virtues in II, 365c3-4. The image of ‘shadow’ is used differently in each context: the depicted justice is called a shadow of justice in IV, 443c4-5; falsehood in speech is explained as a shadow of the inner state of falsehood in II, 382b6-c2.
- 8.
Phantasma, II, 382a2, VI, 510a1 (Line), VII, 516b5 (Cave), 532c2 (Cave), IX, 584a9 (pleasure), X, 598b3, 5, 599a3 (mimēsis); phantasia, II, 382e10: this probably is the first example in the Greek literature; see Notomi (1999, pp. 262–263).
- 9.
- 10.
For the philosophy of Izutsu, see Wakamatsu (2014).
- 11.
Sakabe (1976), especially Ch. I.3, ‘a sketch on Kage’ and IV.2 ‘Utsushi-mi’.
- 12.
Izutsu (1983). For Izutsu, ‘Oriental’ (Tōyō) means not a geographical, but a ‘spiritual’ place, as Suhrawardi’s ‘Mashriq’.
- 13.
Cf. Jambet (1981, pp. 40–41).
- 14.
The initial text contains a difficulty, but I refer to the story as ‘Gyges’ ring’, as most people do. See note 17.
- 15.
Cf. Laird (2001, pp. 20–21).
- 16.
For the Republic, translation of Grube-Reeve (1992) is used, occasionally with some modifications.
- 17.
All the manuscripts read ‘τῷ Γύγου τοῦ Λυδοῦ προγόνῳ’ in 359d1-2, which literally means ‘to the ancestor of Gyges the Lydian’. If this is correct, it contradicts Socrates’ later reference in Book X: ‘whether someone possesses the ring of Gyges (ton Gygou daktylion), or not’ (612b3). While a few commentators (James Adam and Andrew Laird) defend this reading of the manuscript, I believe that the text should be emended in one way or another. Adam (1902, vol. I, p. 70, pp. 126–127), suggests that Glaucon talks about the homonymous ancestor of Gyges; Laird (2001, p. 22), suggests that Socrates later mistakes the reference. Both proposals seem fairly implausible. Since either reference has something wrong, the present passage should be emended if we consider the obvious reminiscence of the famous story as recorded in Herodotus. I suggest that we either change ‘Γύγου’ to ‘Γύγῃ’ according to the Scholion and read it as ‘to Gyges, the ancestor of the Lydian’, or omit it to read ‘to the ancestor of the Lydian’ (Hermann, Campbell), or Slings (2005, pp. 22–24), proposes as a ‘trial balloon’ to omit ‘τῷ προγόνῳ’ as a gloss and change the rest to ‘Γύγηι τῶι Λυδῶι’. However, I prefer a simpler emendation.
- 18.
Cf. II, 359d3-5.
- 19.
Cf. III, 414d4-415c8. The image of ‘underworld’ in Greek mythology and the Republic is discussed in Männlein-Robert (2013).
- 20.
III, 414c4-415d6, cf. VIII, 546d7-547b7; Hesiod, Works and Days 109–201.
- 21.
Cf. I, 327a1. For these first words, see Burnyeat (1998).
- 22.
Cf. X. 614b8-e1.
- 23.
Modern philosophers may well answer like the ancient sophists that morality is a matter of social contracts.
- 24.
In spite of the initial conclusion in 445a-b, a full discussion is needed in Books VIII and IX.
- 25.
The intertextuality of this story with Herodotus, Archilochus, Hippias and the Republic itself (VIII 566c1-d4, in particular) plays a crucial role in understanding of Gyges as ‘tyrant’. For this, see my analysis in Notomi (2010).
- 26.
Cf. X, 611c6-612a7. For the sea-god Glaucus in Phd. 108d, see Clay (1985).
- 27.
Cf. IV, 435a2-3: the verb ‘eklampein’ (shine out) reminds us of ‘katalamein’ in the simile of the Sun (VI, 508c9, d4).
- 28.
Cf. VI, 498a7-9. DK 22 B6 (Arist. Meteor. B2, 355a13). Heraclitus also talks about the sun: B3 (its size), B94 (measure), B99 (relation to the stars) and B100.
- 29.
‘It ever was and is and will be: fire everliving, kindled in measures and in measures going out’ (DK 22 B30, second half, trans. Kahn).
- 30.
For this contrast, see Taylor (1928, pp. 212–214).
- 31.
Cf. VI, 505a4-6, 506c2-3; see also I, 354b9-c3.
- 32.
Cf. VI, 506e2 (quoted above in 1.3.1): ‘ekgonos’ (child) and ‘homoiotatos’ (very similar).
- 33.
The initial proposal of going out to see the torch race on horseback at the Bendis festival (I, 328a1-b3) seems to be totally neglected, probably because they are deeply rapt in the intense discussion.
- 34.
Cf. VI, 508b12-13.
- 35.
Cf. VII, 516a5-c3.
- 36.
Esp. Phdr. 246a3-248e3.
- 37.
Cf. VI, 509a9-10.
- 38.
Cf. VII, 515a4, 517a8; see also the comparison to discuss Pythagoreans in VII, 531b4-8. A simile about parents and child illustrates education of dialectic, in VII, 538c4-5.
- 39.
Cf. VI, 506d7-509b9 (Sun), 509c5-d5 (Line), VII, 515e5-516c3, e4-5, 517b3 (Cave).
- 40.
Cf. VII, 532a2-d1.
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Notomi, N. (2019). Imagination for Philosophical Exercise in Plato’s Republic: The Story of Gyges’ Ring and the Simile of the Sun. In: Pitteloud, L., Keeling, E. (eds) Psychology and Ontology in Plato. Philosophical Studies Series, vol 139. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04654-5_1
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