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In Plato's Republic, the concept of a noble lie is a myth or Lie in a society that either emerges on its own or is propagated by an elite in order to maintain social order or for the "greater good". Descriptions of it date back as early as ancient Greece in Plato's The Republic.
Plato presented the noble lie (γενναῖον ψεῦδος, gennaion pseudos)Translator Allan Bloom explains, "The word is generation which is, primarily, 'noble' in the sense of 'nobly born' or 'well bred'..." and refers to Plato's Republic 375a and 409c for comparison (p. 455 n. 65, The Republic of Plato, 2nd edition, New York: Basic Books, 1991). in the fictional tale known as the myth or parable of the metals in Book III. In it, Socrates provides the origin of the three who compose the republic proposed by Plato. 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."Book 3, 415c–d
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." Religion for Plato is a noble lie, at least if we assume that Plato meant all of this sincerely, not cynically. Popper finds Plato's conception of religion to have been very influential in subsequent thought.
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