Aristotle

Arguing from Aristotle’s point of view, believe that telling a “noble lie” really isn’t as noble as Plato’s would like to make it seem. Telling people that the only reason they have the social status that they live because of the type of metal they have in their blood is absolutely ridiculous. What happened to social climbing? Doesn’t the noble lie deteriorate the self-esteem? Telling someone that they won’t be anything but a worker for the rest of their life just to maintain “order”, although it won’t make them happy is not moral at all. One should be able to do what makes them truly happy. They shouldn’t be made to do something that they have to do for the rest of their life.

Just as being told what to do regardless of your satisfaction of it is immoral, claiming that you have a certain trait when you never really practiced it is just as wrong. Like the saying goes, “practice makes perfect”. Just because someone says that they are brave when they’ve never been in the situation where they had to show that trait is lack of virtue. Just as saying that someone is moral and has values when they’ve never shown their values or morality.

Although Plato makes a point that having the knowledge of something helps with having that trait or ability, it means nothing when you can practice it. People who are stuck in certain living situations have the knowledge as to how they can come out of bondage of their situation they never had the chance to actually do it because of the “noble lie” that someone like Plato has told them. Their self-esteem has been diminished from the lies of outsiders and those who’ve never had to work more than 2 jobs just to make ends meet. Those people have told them that they could never make it if they climbed the social ladder and someone like Plato would never give them that chance.