Abstract

Public Religion and personal beliefs. Plato against Socrates? The present paper examines first Socrates’ attitude (condemned, among others, for his non-adherence to the city’s religious beliefs) towards the official religion of Athens, as it appears in the Platonic dialogues. We then analyse Plato’s position concerning the citizens who diverged from the religious representations established by law in the ideal cities. Finally, we formulate what we consider to be the similarities and differences between (‘the Platonic’) Socrates and Plato himself concerning the relations between public religion and personal beliefs. Against the current interpretations, we defend the idea that Plato conserved from the beginning till the end of his work his devotion to Socratic principles concerning divinity. In fact, in the ideal cities Plato “reverses” the roles: the intimate convictions of Socrates regarding the gods, defined dialectically by the logos, become the foundation of legislation and are the only ones officially accepted.