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An insightful commentary on Plato’s Laws, his complex final work.
The Laws was Plato’s last work, his longest, and one of his most difficult. In contrast to the Republic, which presents an abstract ideal, the Laws appears to provide practical guidelines for the establishment and maintenance of political order in the real world. Classicist Seth Benardete offers a rich analysis of each of the twelve books of the Laws, which illuminates Plato’s major themes and arguments concerning theology, the soul, justice, and education.
Most importantly, Benardete shows how music in a broad sense, including drama, epic poetry, and even puppetry, mediates between reason and the city in Plato’s philosophy of law. Benardete also uncovers the work’s concealed ontological dimension, explaining why it is hidden and how it can be brought to light. In establishing the coherence and underlying organization of Plato’s last dialogue, Benardete makes a significant contribution to Platonic studies.
Preface
Acknowledgments
I. The Eidetic and the Genetic
1. War and Peace
2. Courage and Moderation
3. Drunkenness
4. The Puppet Masters
II. Education and Imitation
1. The Beautiful
2. Kinds of Pleasure
3. The Just
4. The Chorus of Dionysus
III. History
1. Homer
2. The Dorians
3. Persia and Athens
IV. Law and Prelude
1. People and Place
2. Regimes and Law
3. Double Law and Prelude
V. Prescriptions
1. Knowledge and Ignorance
2. The Real and the Imaginary
VI. On Getting Started
1. Beginnings and Magistrates
2. Succession
3. Marriage
VII. Education
1. Unwritten Law
2. Consecration
3. The Laws
4. Imitation
5. False Impressions
6. Hunting
VIII. The First End of the Laws
1. War Games
2. Eros
3. Agricultural and Commercial Law
IX. Criminal Law
1. Hard Cases
2. The Beautiful, the Just, and the Good
3. Socratic Ignorance
4. Violence
X. Theology
1. Atheism
2. Soul and Body
3. Providence
XI. Private Law
1. Making Good
2. Estrangements
3. Comedy
XII. Public Law
1. Heroic Virtue
2. Reviewers and Observers
3. The Nocturnal Council
Epilogue
Index
Text Problems in Laws
Description
An insightful commentary on Plato’s Laws, his complex final work.
The Laws was Plato’s last work, his longest, and one of his most difficult. In contrast to the Republic, which presents an abstract ideal, the Laws appears to provide practical guidelines for the establishment and maintenance of political order in the real world. Classicist Seth Benardete offers a rich analysis of each of the twelve books of the Laws, which illuminates Plato’s major themes and arguments concerning theology, the soul, justice, and education.
Most importantly, Benardete shows how music in a broad sense, including drama, epic poetry, and even puppetry, mediates between reason and the city in Plato’s philosophy of law. Benardete also uncovers the work’s concealed ontological dimension, explaining why it is hidden and how it can be brought to light. In establishing the coherence and underlying organization of Plato’s last dialogue, Benardete makes a significant contribution to Platonic studies.
