Loyalty and Love of Wisdom in Plato's Republic

First I address Leo Strauss's method of analysis with respect to the Platonic dialogues, and then I proceed to argue that the focus of his analysis of Plato's Republic is the distinction between justice and loyalty, which is strictly connected with the difference between the ancestral and the good. In order to prove my point I analyze Strauss's interpretation of the noble lie. According to Strauss, Plato shows with the noble lie that the ideological foundations of the city created by Socrates and his companions puts into question the possibility of absolute justice. The tension between the ancestral and the good, between loyalty to one's city and love of humanity, between belief in a tradition and a critical philosophical stance shows that Plato was not a dogmatic philosopher but, rather, a zetetic philosopher.