Plato’s noble lie

Plato and Pinocchio

Are politicians allowed to lie to convince the people of what they see as a good thing for everybody? That is something I was wondering, as so many politicians proclaim untruths, falsehoods or lies – or how you want to call them – during the current wars to defend them (and not only then). Plato already discussed the problem in his Republic (Πολιτεία, Politeia) 2500 years ago, for example:

Socrates is discussing the ideal state with Glaukon and Adeimantos and raises the question of how to convince the people to help establish this state and to support it. In order to do so, he suggests telling them a “noble lie”:
“How, then,” said I [=Socrates], “might we contrive one of those opportune falsehoods of which we were just now speaking, so as by one noble lie to persuade if possible the rulers themselves, but failing that the rest of the city?”
“What kind of a lie do you mean?” said he. “Nothing unprecedented,” said I, “but a sort of Phoenician tale, something that has happened ere now in many parts of the world, as the poets aver and have induced men to believe, but that has not happened and perhaps would not be likely to happen in our day and demanding no little persuasion to make it believable.”
“You act like one who shrinks from telling his thought,” he said. “You will think that I have right good reason for shrinking when I have told,” I said.
Say on,” said he, “and don't be afraid.”
“Very well, I will. And yet I hardly know how to find the audacity or the words to speak and undertake to persuade first the rulers themselves and the soldiers and then the rest of the city, that in good sooth all our training and educating of them were things that they imagined and that happened to them as it were in a dream; but that in reality at that time they were down within the earth being moulded and fostered themselves while their weapons and the rest of their equipment were being fashioned. And when they were quite finished the earth as being their mother delivered them, and now as if their land were their mother and their nurse they ought to take thought for her and defend her against any attack and regard the other citizens as their brothers and children of the self-same earth.”
“It is not for nothing,” he said, “that you were so bashful about coming out with your lie.”
“It was quite natural that I should be.”
[Then Socrates further elaborates on the “noble lie” and at the end he says:]
Do you see any way of getting them to believe this tale?”
No, not these themselves,” he said, “but I do, their sons and successors and the rest of mankind who come after.”
“Well,” said I, “even that would have a good effect making them more inclined to care for the state and one another. For I think I apprehend your meaning. And this shall fall out as tradition guides.” (Book I, 414b-415d)

Plato uses explicitly the words “lie” (pseudos) and “to lie” (pseudein) in this context. Therefore, I have replaced the word “fiction” by “lie” in the second paragraph of the translation above. Another thing is that, when reading this passage, a modern reader may think that Socrates’s story is not very convincing. Isn’t it? Note how many fantasy stories go around in circles of complot thinkers that are really believed, like about evil people who eat little children for their satanic rites! For Socrates the lie presented here was a serious story that could be used to convince people, although it might be difficult, as the end of the quoted passage shows.
So Socrates, or in fact Plato, suggests here that politicians are allowed to lie if it is for a good cause, in order to convince others to support them. The so-called “noble lie”. It’s no wonder that this view led to many and often strong reactions through the ages.
For me, Plato’s “noble lie” sounds quite Machiavellian, albeit a moderate Machiavellianism. But who decides whether a lie is “noble”? Don’t most of us think that their aims are noble, or not bad, anyway? Or at least they present their aims that way? Machiavelli openly allowed the ruler to deceive the people and his opponents if it was useful to keep him in power. That’s not what Plato says here. A noble lie is not meant to deceive but as a means to convince people in a cause that is good for all and not only for the ruler. Doesn’t Plato tell here that also the rulers must be convinced by the noble lie? Anyway, maybe it was because of the Machiavellianism that Montaigne saw around him that he strictly rejected lying: “In plain truth, lying is an accursed vice. We are not men, nor have other tie upon one another, but by our word. If we did but discover the horror and gravity of it, we should pursue it with fire and sword, and more justly than other crimes.” And also: “I have this vice in so great horror, that I am not sure I could prevail with my conscience to secure myself from the most manifest and extreme danger by an impudent and solemn lie.” (in “Of Liars”, Essays, Book I-9) Montaigne would even keep his word after having been taken captive by a robber and then released against the promise to pay a ransom later, after his release. Nevertheless, Montaigne admits that rulers and others in power are allowed to use lies in the right circumstances. (see Of Profit and Honesty, Essays, Book III-1) Thus in fact Montaigne allowed the noble lie.
One of the fiercest critics of Plato’s noble lie was Karl R. Popper. In his The Open Society and his Enemies Vol. I. Plato, Popper stated that allowing the noble lie paves the way for fascism and Nazism and other totalitarian ideologies. And it is true that rulers and ideologists of authoritarian if not totalitarian states often make use of lies, falsehoods and falsifications as well in order to justify and support their power and position. Kant stated that lying is always morally wrong, without exception, which implicitly also rejects the noble lie. But what if in the Second World War you had a person in hiding in your home, and a Nazi patrol knocked at your door, asking whether you had hiders in your house. Should you say then “Yes, I have”?
The question whether a noble lie is allowed is not simply a matter of yes or no. Although I agree with Montaigne that lies are reprehensible, it’s more that noble lies should be rejected than that they must or have to be rejected. Anyway, I am going a step further than Montaigne and think that it is allowed to lie against a robber and not keep your promises to him. But ideologies based on a false representation of things are reprehensible, anyway. Popper was right but not for the reason given (see Bert van den Berg et al., ch. 1). A government can be in situations that it would undermine the state and bring many people in danger if it would openly tell the truth. Undoubtedly, there can be good reasons for “white lies” or “noble lies”, but the basic rule must be not to accept a lie, even when presented as noble. Exceptions must be exceptions. And whenever what a political leader says is a lie that then is exposed as a lie, we must not accept it because it is a political leader who says so, as too often happens. For a lie it is and a lie needs a strong justification to be acceptable.