Plato's Myths and Mythology

The charge of hypocrisy can also be avoided if we remember that plato attacks the poets, not just for using myth, but for using myth as a vehicle for falsehood rather than truth. By writing his own myths, which teach true beliefs about how to live and about the gods, plato is in effect saying to homer and hesiod, this, my friends, is how you do it. It's not for nothing that whitehead described the entire history of philosophy as a set footnotes to plato. So join me next week when we can say, let the footnotes begin with the life and works of aristotle here on the history of philosophy, without any gaps.