L’uomo e la nascita della società: mythoi antropologici e sociogonici all’interno dei dialoghi di Platone

Abstract

Plato, in different dialogues such as Statesman, Protagoras, Republic, Timaeus-Critias and Laws, creates a number of myths that describe both the early condition of the human race and the efforts made by men to develop the first forms of social and political organisation. Myth - that ancient and unsurpassed mean of transmission of knowledge and moral precepts - seems indeed to be the only instrument able to reconstruct not only the anthropological characteristics and original state of man, but also the genesis of human aggregation and of the first technical and cultural realisations. Therefore, a determined group of dialogical characters – The Stranger of Elea, Protagoras, Socrates, Critias and the Athenian –, within the different platonic dialogues, presents a number of myths marked not only by their great literary fascination, but also by their independent philosophical value. Although each myth is linked to the others by many analogies both in structure and content, each one is an autonomous artistic and intellectual creation, but is however intrinsically bound to the dialogical context it is collocated in. As myths are introduced in order to give answers to precise questions and find solutions to certain problems (is the “golden age” lifestyle a desirable one? is it just an “animal paradise”? is man a selfish and aggressive being or is he a social and peace-loving one? is the political aggregation the product of an artificial and utilitarian contract or is it a natural result? is it possible to create a polis that guarantees collaboration and peace, without excluding cultural and aesthetical realisations?), it is essential not to sever the deep link between the mythical tale and the context in which it is collocated, but rather to examine carefully the function and meaning of the former in relationship to the latter and vice versa.