Plato's Lie In The Soul
In his famous work
Republic,
Plato discusses the concept of the `True Lie' or the `Lie in the Soul'. Through a conversation between
Socrates and Adeimantus (Plato's brother) Plato defines the `true lie' as believing wrongly about the most important things in one's life. The `lie in the soul' can be understood as Plato's answer to the Sophist
Protagoras' famous assertion that "Man is the measure of all things", that, if one believes something to be so, it is so. Plato repudiated Protagoras' claim in virtually every one of his dialogues and
Republic is no exception.
The `true lie' or `lie in the soul' can best be explained this way: If one believes, at a certain point, that eating carrots with every meal is the best thing one could do for one's health and, later, realizes that excess in anything can be a bad thing and stops the carrot-eating, that realization would have no long-term negative consequences on one's life. If, however, one believes the person one loves is a paragon of virtue and then discovers that person is a lying, conniving thief, this discovery could undermine one's confidence in oneself, in one's judgment, in other people, and even in a belief in
God, in so far as finding out one is wrong about a person one was so certain of would lead one to question what other important matters in life one is also wrong about.
I'll interject here to point out that this is exactly what you are doing to your forum friends, by continuing this charade of deceptions, instead of just coming clean and ending the bullshit.
Plato, therefore, claims the `lie in the soul' is the worst affliction one can suffer from and differentiates this affliction from ordinary `lying' or from `story telling'. When one tells a lie, one knows that one is not telling the truth and when one tells a story one understands that the story is not absolute fact. When one has a lie in the soul, however, one is unaware that what they believe to be true is actually false and so they speak untruths constantly without knowing they are doing so. To believe wrongly about the most important things in one's life renders one incapable of seeing life realistically and, so, incapable of understanding the true nature of existence, of others and, especially, oneself.
In the following conversation from
Republic, Plato claims that, 1, no one wants to be wrong about the most important matters in life, 2, an everyday `lie' is not the same thing as having a lie in one's soul, and, 3, that lies in words can be useful in helping friends or in the creation of mythologies which provide comfort and stability to people seeking the answer to where they came from and why they exist.
The main problem with having a lie in the soul, as stated earlier, is that, when one holds such a lie, one cannot realize it. In order to recognize the lie in one's soul one must attach oneself to a philosopher and pursue wisdom. In this pursuit, one will come to understand what one's lie is and, once it is realized, will be able to leave the lie behind and move on to live a life of truth, honesty and clarity.
