THE PHILOSOPHICAL VALUE OF THE MYTH OF ER IN PLATO'S REPUBLIC

The aim of this paper is to show that the Myth of Er in Plato's Republic possesses philosophical value in itself and therefore its function should not be conceived neither as ancillary or supplementary to argumentative discourse. In order to do that I will start by presenting the discussion about the definition of "myth" in the platonic dialogues and, resuming the conclusions reached there, I will focus next on the analysis of the function of the eschatalogical myth aforementioned to conclude with some implications that such analysis has when considering platonic philosophy.