This tale has always reminded me of what Plato called "the noble lie."

He builds a series of myths, or noble lies, to make the cities appear just, and these conditions moderate life within the communities.

Noble Lie: How politicians justify doing whatever they want, by claiming it's good for the country.

They are against the idea of telling the public Platonic 'noble lies' and believe that people should not be protected from radical views.

The noble lie is a concept originated by Plato as described in the Republic.

She has suffered for the noble lie, which she had told on my behalf, as no woman has ever been made to suffer before.

Plato taught that the rulers of the Republic might sometimes be required to tell "noble lies" for the good of its citizens.

Karl Popper accused Plato of trying to base religion on a noble lie as well.

Ah, where is the lying innocence which I once possessed, the innocence of the good and of their noble lies!

Plato's version is The Noble Lie.

Religion for Plato is a noble lie, at least if we assume that Plato meant all of this sincerely, not cynically.

Seymour Hersh also claims that Strauss endorsed noble lies: myths used by political leaders seeking to maintain a cohesive society.

Plato's "Noble Lie", concerns expertise.

By implication, Strauss asks his readers to consider whether it is true that noble lies have no role at all to play in uniting and guiding the polis.

Deciding on a noble lie, to which the abbe consented, all said that Saint-Savin died in a clash with some Landsknechts who were approaching the castle.

Is the community so anxious that its judges not behave as pragmatists that this "noble lie" will help him serve its true interests better in the long run?

On the left was Socrates, who stood for the Noble Lie on which all society is based, a cup of hemlock resting on the arm of his chair.

He will have other reasons, quite apart from any strategy of the noble lie, for falling in with certain familiar practices that he might be tempted, at first look, to discard.

A noble lie is one that would normally cause discord if uncovered, but offers some benefit to the liar and assists in an orderly society, therefore, potentially beneficial to others.

Socrates' answer to the problem is, in essence, that the guardians will be manipulated to guard themselves against themselves via a deception often called the "noble lie" in English.

From Plato's 'noble lie' to Mosca's 'political formula'realists have stressed that manipulation or deception is the counterpart of coercion in explaining the foundation and stability of regimes.

In politics a noble lie is a myth or untruth, often, but not invariably, of a religious nature, knowingly told by an elite to maintain social harmony or to advance an agenda.

Such a method of social control conceptually derived from the Noble Lie, proposed by Plato, which was required for the social stability of a republic composed of three social classes.

That is partly because the phrase here translated 'magnificent myth' (p.414b) has been conventionally mistranslated 'noble lie'; and this has been used to support the charge that Plato countenances manipulation by propaganda.

He has been called a cynical teacher who encouraged his students to believe in their right to rule humanity, a patron saint of neoconservatives, a believer in the use of "noble lies" to manipulate the masses.