“高贵的谎言”——基于《政治家篇》和《法律篇》的补注

“The Noble Lie”—Supplementary Notes of Plato’s Statesman and The Law

柏拉图先后在《理想国》《政治家篇》和《法律篇》中提出过“高贵的谎言”问题.通过对这一谎言正当实施的前提条件、其本身蕴含的代际张力以及《法律篇》中对欺妄的批判三方面的分析表明,“高贵的谎言”只是理想前提条件下完美的标准,柏拉图一方面对谎言的可行性有所保留,另一方面也意识到谎言之上无限权力的隐患,并提出了以法律和机制制衡统治权力的民主性方案.柏拉图对“高贵的谎言”的工具性使用或许更多是为了构建出“正义”的二元辩证思考.

When interpreting Plato’s noble lie,a clearer understanding can be obtained by collating the texts of Statesman and the Law.This article reveals that“the noble lie”is only the perfect standard under ideal preconditions through the analysis of Plato’s preconditions for the proper implementation of this lie,the intergenerational tension contained therein,and the criticism of deceit in the Law.On the one hand,Plato had reservations about the feasibility of lies,on the other hand,he was aware of the hidden danger of unlimited power over lies,and proposed a democratic plan to balance the ruling power with laws and mechanisms.Perhaps this lie was put forward more to construct a binary dialectical thinking of justice.