Noble lie

[1] Plato presented the noble lie (γενναῖον ψεῦδος, gennaion pseudos)[2] in the fictional tale known as the myth or parable of the metals in Book III.

Socrates proposes and claims that if the people believed "this myth...[it] would have a good effect, making them more inclined to care for the state and one another.

"[3] The concept of the noble lie as defined by Plato has sparked controversy among modern interpreters.

[4] In The Open Society and Its Enemies, Karl Popper remarks, "It is hard to understand why those of Plato's commentators who praise him for fighting against the subversive conventionalism of the Sophists, and for establishing a spiritual naturalism ultimately based on religion, fail to censure him for making a convention, or rather an invention, the ultimate basis of religion."

Popper finds Plato's conception of religion to have been very influential in subsequent thought.