Ethical corruption and non-rational belief in Republic Books 8 to 10

Bibliographic Data

ID21597652
AuthorsDamien Storey (0000-0001-8665-0159, Koç University, corresponding author)
Year2026
Volume34
Issue1
Pages1-21
Publication date2026-01-02
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueBritish Journal for the History of Philosophy (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0960-8788 • E-ISSN: 1469-3526
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/09608788.2025.2553299
OpenAlexW4414531857
LanguageEN
References cited23

Republic Book 10’s account of corruption – of how a person declines from a better to a worse state of character – is rarely compared with the account of corruption in Books 8 and 9. This paper argues that Plato intended Book 10 to shed light on the earlier discussion. Non-rational beliefs play a prominent role in Books 8 and 9’s account of corruption, but within metaphors that are indecipherable without drawing on the more detailed and literal account developed in Book 10, which examines the corruption of a certain ‘decent’ (epieikēs) character. I offer an account of the cognitive side of corruption across all three books, guided by the task of explaining the puzzling attributions of non-rational belief in Books 8 and 9

Ethical theories · Ethical theory · Language change · Classical Antiquity Studies · Classical Philosophy and Thought · Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies

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