The Blame Is His Who Chooses

The Quote

"The blame is his who chooses. God is blameless."

— Plato, Republic, 619b

Original language: Greek

Historical Context

These words conclude the Myth of Er, the closing narrative of Plato's Republic. In the myth, a soldier named Er is killed in battle, experiences the afterlife, and returns to report what he saw. He describes souls being judged, traveling through the heavens, and then drawing lots to choose their next lives. Each soul selects a "pattern of life" from a selection spread before it, and the choice is irrevocable.

The statement "the blame is his who chooses" is addressed to souls about to make their life choice. A messenger warns them that even the last soul to choose can select a good life if it chooses wisely, while the first to choose carelessly may end up with a terrible one. The responsibility for the quality of the life chosen lies entirely with the chooser, not with God, chance, or circumstance.

Meaning

The passage asserts a radical doctrine of moral responsibility. The quality of one's life is determined not by external forces — divine, natural, or social — but by the choices one makes. "God is blameless" means that the divine does not predetermine or impose the life one receives; the soul chooses freely, and the consequences follow from that choice.

This is a compact statement of a large idea: that moral agency is the ultimate determinant of human flourishing or misery. Even when circumstances seem to constrain options, the manner of choosing — wisely or carelessly — remains within the soul's power.

Philosophical Interpretation

The Myth of Er functions as both a cosmological narrative and a moral argument. At the cosmological level, it presents a universe in which justice is built into the structure of reality: souls receive lives proportionate to their choices and their previous conduct. At the moral level, it insists that human beings are the authors of their own destinies, not through control over external events but through the quality of their choices.

The statement "God is blameless" distinguishes Plato's position from traditions that attribute human suffering to divine will or fate. If God is blameless, then suffering cannot be charged to the divine account. The responsibility falls on the human chooser, which also means that the power to choose well — and thereby to avoid suffering — lies within human reach.

This connects to a central argument of the Republic: that justice is intrinsically good for the soul, regardless of external rewards or punishments. The Myth of Er dramatizes this claim by imagining a scenario in which the soul's choice determines its entire subsequent life. The lesson is that one must learn to choose wisely — to distinguish genuine goods from apparent ones — because the quality of one's life depends on it.

Related Concepts

• Morality: The passage grounds moral responsibility in the capacity for choice, placing the burden of ethical life on the individual.
• Freedom: The soul's freedom to choose its life is inseparable from its responsibility for that choice — freedom and accountability are two sides of the same coin.

Related Learning

• Explore the Republic archive entry for the full context of the Myth of Er.
• The Greek Philosophy page connects Plato's moral theory to the broader tradition.

Sources

1. Plato. The Republic of Plato. Translated by Allan Bloom. New York: Basic Books, 1968. 619b.
2. "Plato's Ethics and Politics in The Republic." Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/plato-ethics-politics/