Essentially Plato is saying there is a concept of a "Noble Lie" that while untrue, could be told to society that results in a net improvement. His example is te

Essentially Plato is saying there is a concept of a "Noble Lie" that while untrue, could be told to society that results in a net improvement. His example is telling society that each person is imbued with the talent of Gold, Silver, and Bronze. The lie is that if people don't have the proper talent (soul) in each position, then their society will be overthrown. (eventually true but not as direct as told) So Silver people will be ensured their Gold children will do important Gold positions, and Gold people will be ensured their Bronze children will need to do manual labor, etc. Yes there are, usually in the shorter plays. The Republic is famously dense and takes effort to read. Here is a good overview of Plato's writings and which are recommended: https://phuulishfellow.wordpress.com/2019/08/18/a-platonic-reading-order/ https://phuulishfellow.wordpress.com/2019/08/18/a-platonic-r... Also if it's highly rated on Goodreads, it probably has popular appeal translating to ease of reading: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/879.Plato https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/879.Plato Stanford's philosophy library will help with explanations: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/plato-ethics-shorter/#11 https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/plato-ethics-shorter/#11 TL;DR: Apology Symposium Phaedo