Plato wrote that instruments and songs using certain "what" should be banned to more easily put the soul

Question

Best answer gets 10 points!!

Answer 1

Plato wrote the instuments and songs using certain "modes" should be banned to more easily put the soul.... Because the certain modes "back in the day" usually had men jumping around in a circle, lol.....

I hope I'm right...

Answer 2

Yes, it was modes of music that should be banned. That discussion comes from Plato's Republic. Although we don't actually know what the modes sounded like, we still use the names in modern music.

The thinking of Socrates was that if a, in this case republic, allowed certain types of modes then you would corrupt your guardian classes that were supposed to be loyal to certain Traditions and noble values.
In other words, if you have a people brought up on classical music and then expose them to hip-hop, this will cause the society to degenerate much as ours has although for many other factors than just music.

Answer 3

I am not sure that I understand your question fully. Definitely Plato talked about three elevations of the soul. To him the correct allignment of the soul and the correct allignment of society would produce the desired outcome of a happy and harmonious existence. The philosophical should control the ambitious side of ones nature and together they should control the passionate energy that is inside of us (or in society, the uneducated farmers and laborers who, from ignorance, trusted their appetites and emotions). Plato did not like any art and the artist whom he despised most was Homer whom he accused as misrepresenting the gods who in a sense are murderers and adulterers in Homers depiction of them. To Plato artists carried us into replicas of humans who are replicas of ideas, thus taking us into a realm of being further from reality. He wanted artists to be banned from the state.