IN PLATO’S IMAGEany embodied being, would ever be able to explain the nature of the
realities, and whether the image of the sun is therefore the most philo-
sophically appropriate means for helping the young men understand
the nature of the Good after all.
But images play a more important—even crucial—role in the Re-
public, philosophically speaking. As Socrates reveals in his conversation
with Adeimantus, the primary activity of the philosopher, as depicted in
the Republic, is to imitate noble images!
“For surely, Adeimantus, the man whose mind is truly fi xed on eternal
realities has no leisure to turn his eyes downward upon the petty af-
fairs of men, and so engaging in strife with them to be fi lled with envy
and hate, but he fi xes his gaze upon the things of the eternal and un-
changing order, and seeing that they neither wrong nor are wronged
by one another, but all abide in harmony as reason bids, he will
endeavor to imitate [mimei`sqai] them and, as far as may be, to fash-
ion himself in their likeness and assimilate himself [ajfomoiou`sqai]
to them.”... “If then,” I said, “some compulsion is laid upon him to
practice stamping on the plastic matter of human nature in public and
private patterns that he visions there, and not merely to mold and fash-
ion himself, do you think he will prove a poor craftsman of sobriety
and justice and all forms of ordinary civic virtue?” “By no means,” he
said. “But if the multitude become aware that what we are saying of the
philosopher is true, will they still be harsh with philosophers, and will
they distrust our statement that no city could ever be blessed unless its
lineaments were traced by artists who used the heavenly model?” “They
will not be harsh,” he said, “if they perceive that.” (500b– e)It is through the faculty of vision that the philosopher is connected to
the realities and, relying on his vision, he creates, in the manner of the
artist or craftsman, imitations of what he sees. Plato uses the language
of vision and plastic, artistic creation. Not only does the philosopher
mold his own soul in this manner, but when compelled to rule the polis,
he “stamps out on the plastic matter of human nature” the virtues and
character needed in the citizens.^23 Likewise, the Socratic project, with
respect to the interlocutors, and the Platonic project, with respect to
reader and audience, could be conceived of in similar terms as molding
or making impressions on souls.^24 Note again the subtle concessions in
the passage above made to the limitations of the person whose gaze is
fi xed on the realities. Even that person endeavors to imitate the realities
“as far as may be” and consequently that person’s soul becomes ordered
and divine “in the measure permitted to man.”