Although it serves as the ontological and axiological ground for Plato’s political proposal, the tripartite soul theory will remain crippled if we ignore Plato’s criticism of pre-Platonic cultural practices and the influence of those cultural practices on the psychological configuration of individuals. With this aspect in mind, this paper has two main objectives: to place Plato’s psychology in the whole context of politics of the soul, with emphasis on the objective sense of this expression ; an…
Read moreAlthough it serves as the ontological and axiological ground for Plato’s political proposal, the tripartite soul theory will remain crippled if we ignore Plato’s criticism of pre-Platonic cultural practices and the influence of those cultural practices on the psychological configuration of individuals. With this aspect in mind, this paper has two main objectives: to place Plato’s psychology in the whole context of politics of the soul, with emphasis on the objective sense of this expression ; and to emphasize the connection between Plato’s theory of the soul in the Republic and his criticism of imitative poetry in books II, III and X. I will try to show that artistic representation is both a psychological and a political experience: a psycho-political experience which involves metaphysical, epistemological, psychological, and moral dimensions. What is the effect of imitative poetry on human soul? And to what extent does this effect compromise Plato’s psycho-political project?