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My daughter asked why Plato wanted to ban stories. What exactly did he ban?

Thamarai Raman Fellow
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EducationGreek & RomanPlatonismAristotlePlato#censorship#plato#poetry#republic
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Its coordinates: 6.3 Philosophy of Education

I read to my children every night, a mix of the Panchatantra, Tamil folk tales and whatever they bring home from the library. My eight-year-old saw a book on my shelf and asked what it was about. I said, a little carelessly, that it was by a man who thought stories were dangerous and wanted to ban poets from his perfect city.

She was outraged. "All stories? Even the ones with animals?" And I realised I didn't actually know.

So could someone explain what Plato really proposed in the Republic? Did he ban all poetry, or only some? Was it about the content of stories or something else? And why did someone who wrote such wonderful myths himself (I have read the cave) think stories needed controlling?

I would like an answer I can give an eight-year-old, but I'd also like to understand it properly myself.

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4 answers

Accepted answer

  1. Giulia Ferrante

    ✓ Accepted answer Fellow

    It comes in two stages, Thamarai.

    Books II and III: stories in education. Plato is designing the guardians' upbringing, and thinks childhood stories shape the soul before reason can. So he would censor stories showing the gods doing wrong (Hesiod's tale of Kronos and his father is his main target), gods changing shape and deceiving, and heroes wailing in despair at death. He also worries about imitation as a style. This is censorship, not a ban on stories.

    Book X: the deeper attack. A painter of a bed copies the carpenter's bed, which itself copies the Form of Bed, so art is at a third remove from truth. Worse, poetry feeds and strengthens the emotional part of the soul that reason should govern. This is where he says poetry must be banished, except hymns to the gods and praises of good people. He even invites poetry's defenders to argue, in prose, that it benefits a city.

    For your daughter: "He didn't ban all stories. He feared some teach children that bad behaviour is fine. Most people think he went too far."

    And yes, the irony of the cave is real. Plato used myths whenever an argument ran out; he knew their power, which is why he feared them.

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Other answers

  1. Nikos Theodoridis

    Fellow

    It's worth telling her that Plato's own student answered him. Aristotle's Poetics treats imitation as natural to humans, the way we learn from childhood, and argues that tragedy, by arousing pity and fear, brings about a catharsis of such emotions. Scholars still argue about what catharsis means exactly, but the point is that the emotions poetry stirs can do us good rather than corrupt us. So the debate began in the same school.

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  2. Thamarai Raman

    Fellow

    Thank you, Giulia. I told her "he didn't ban animal stories, he wanted to choose which stories children hear". She thought about it and said that's what I do anyway. She is not wrong.

  3. Rowena Abellana

    Fellow

    This is the most useful way into the Republic I know for teenagers. When I ask my class whether any stories, games or videos should be kept from ten-year-olds, almost all of them say yes. Then I ask who should choose, and on what grounds, and suddenly they are arguing with Plato rather than laughing at him.

    Helpful · 1