Jurisprudence and Plato and The Laws and sobriety and Book I and exposition

While the Republic was written sometime in the 380s, when Plato was probably in his early 40s, the Laws was his last dialogue, written probably in the last decade of his life (358-348). It is also considerably different from the Republic. First, it is an incredibly long dialogue, consisting of almost 350 Stephanus pages. Like any work of Plato it takes great effort to learn; multiple readings are necessary, as are helpful guides to content (of which there are very few). Second, it is much more practical than the Republic. I see the latter as written rather early in Plato's career, after he has just settled down upon founding the Academy, with the hurt of Socrates' execution and the political realities he talks about in his 7th Letter still fresh in his mind. In order to deal with these dominant realities, he sketches a picture of an ideal state where people like him, i.e., philosophers, would rule. In some ways, then, I see the Republic as resentment-literature, even though it introduces several themes in great depth that will reappear in later works. In contrast, the Laws is a more practical exposition of the way a society should be organized, with awareness of separation of powers (Book III), the division between tort and crime (Book IX), the importance of right belief (theology) in the state (Book X), and the importance of education (Book VII). Finally, what impressed me as I spent a long day with the Laws is that they simply are not taught in American higher education. I think at times people might read excerpts from them, but I think they are ignored. I don't know if it is one of my missions in life to bring them back, but I think that close study of the Laws gives one a much more realistic appraisal of Plato's approach to law and jurisprudence than exclusive focus on the Republic. Yet, I believe that with the time we had (3 days) that it was best to introduce you to the Republic.

Book I

The setting for the Laws is the Island of Crete, and the interlocutors are an Athenian stranger, a Cretan and a Spartan. The subject of their conversation in Book I is the contrasting nature of the basic principle behind the drafting of a legal code. All believe that their codes were divinely given (recall this as one of the characteristics of the "pre-modern" worldview). The Athenian asks the Cretan, "What is the purpose of your laws in prescribing your system of common meals and physical training, and your distinctive accoutrements?" The Cretan responds that the Cretan legislator constructed the "universal scheme" of all their institutions "with a view to war." The Athenian responds by looking at warfare from a different perspective---not simply as a battle against an external foe but against an internal foe too. While the Cretan agrees, he uses language that suggests that one inner principle "vanquishing" another is proper. However, the Athenian provides a story about brothers fighting in a family to propose another model: that really the goal of the laws ought not to be to conquer an opponent but to bring one in voluntary submission to the other or, better yet, to "reconcile" members for the future without the loss of life. In other words, through this story the Athenian (i.e., Plato) is suggesting another purpose of law: to encourage the citizen, or to reconcile competing desires in the soul as well as the society.

As the conversation continues, the Athenian probes further whether the most important "war" we need to fight is really the internal one. The Athenian argues, "We assert then, that this type of character proves himself, and proves himself in a deadlier warfar, a far better man than the other in the measure in which justice, self-command, and wisdom, combined together and seconded by valor, are better than mere valor itself." The goal of legislation, then, is "virtue as a whole," and not only to inculcate martial valor. Thus, the legislator must make a careful observation of "the pains, the desires, and all the vehement passions aroused in [people] by all these social relations, and distribute censure and praise among them rightly, in the actual text of the laws (632)." But the legislator should never forget his goal: to "knit the whole into one, and keep it in subjection to sobriety and justice, not to wealth or self-seeking (632)."

The discussion continues concerning the Spartan training for war. The men are trained to endure fear and physical pain, but, as the Athenian points out, they are not trained to deal with "longings and pleasures and their seductive blandishments" that tend to melt people (633). So, whereas the Spartans may give someone courage against pain, one also needs to be victorious over pleasure, too, so as not to be dominated by it. For Plato the legislator must also be aware of the nature of pleasure, and expose people to it because if "citizens are to grow up from childhood without experience of the intensest pleasures, it they are to have not training in constancy and refusal to disgrace themselves when assailed by pleasures, susceptibility to pleasures will lead them to the same fate as those who succumb to their fears (635)." Thus, teaching the four cardinal virtues, the first of which is courage (in this list), requires exposure not simply to things to be feared but also to pleasures.

Discussion of the second cardinal virtue (sobriety or self-control) concludes Book I. There is a long consideration of the place of drinking in the social life. The Athenian contends that a well-ordered drinking party (the Greek work is "symposium") conduces to education because it allows the experience of more extreme pleasures and pains, experiences one must have in order to learn to be sober. That is, sobriety for Plato (not simply sobriety in matters of drink but in all of life) doesn't arise because of abstaining from drink; it arises from being exposed to it and learning not to let it control you. That is, you don't come to "fulness of self-command" unless you first "fight a winning battle against the numerous pleasures and lusts which allure to shamelessness and wrong (647)." So, the task of the lawgiver is actually an educational one; to help citizens develop the cardinal virtues.

Let this suffice for your first foray into the Laws!