Abstract

COUTINHO, Carlos Luciano Silva. Fair Life and Invisibility of the Philosopher in Plato's Republic. Educação e Filosofia [online]. 2018, vol.32, n.65, pp.845-865.  Epub Sep 21, 2020. ISSN 1982-596X.  https://doi.org/10.14393/revedfil.issn.0102-6801.v32n65a2018-16.

The subject of invisibility in Plato’s Republic is directly linked to the execution of justice and injustice. Glauco (second book) points out that all humans, by means of a mythical ring of invisibility, would act unfairly. Thus, a human being would only act well when exposed to the gaze of witnesses, since it seeks its own reward for acting well and since it is afraid of being punished for acting badly. However, Socrates (tenth book) argues that a fair man is able to act well inside the polis, even in the face of the mythical possibility of becoming invisible and seeking his own reward. In this sense, we will try to show how the mythical-allegorical invisibility in the Republic serves to exemplify the right philosophical way to improve the human psyche and the polis. For this purpose, we will show the “someone” (τις) who releases the prisoner from the Cave (seventh book) as a key example of this allegorical invisibility - we know about his existence, but we do not know who he is.

Keywords : Republic; Invisibility; Fair life; Unfair life; Philosophical invisibility.

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