Plato's "Laws"
Subtitle: the discovery of being
By: Seth Benardete
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Published: 2000
Place of publication: Chicago
Language: eng
Number of pages: 385
Subjects: Plato; Plato -- Contributions in ontology; Ontology -- History
Description: "The Laws was Plato's last work, his longest, and one of his most difficult. An abstract ideal not intended for any actual community, the Laws seems to provide practical guidelines for the establishment and maintenance of political order in the real world. With this book, Seth Benardete offers an insightful analysis of and commentary on this rich and complex dialogue.

Each chapter corresponds to one of the twelve books of the Laws, illuminating the major themes and arguments, among them the difference between the atemporal structure of the good and the temporal structure of the law; how experience deviates from the law; the relation between justice and moderation in light of theology and the soul; the relation of administrative structure to the city; and criminal law and the assumptions it must make about the structure of the soul.

As he explicates the major themes and arguments of the dialogue, Benardete also shows how these strands of argument are interwoven throughout the Laws and then sets them against the quite different arguments on the same themes found in The Republic and The Statesman."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index
Table of contents: title: The eidetic and the genetic; title: Education and imitation; title: History; title: Law and prelude; title: Prescriptions; title: On getting started; title: Education; title: The first end of the laws; title: Criminal law; title: Theology; title: Private law; title: Public law