Tragedy, Philosophy, and Political Education in Plato's Laws

Previous scholars and writers have either celebrated the idealism in Plato's Laws or denounced its totalitarianism. Ryan K. Balot, by contrast, refuses to interpret the dialogue as a political blueprint, whether admirable or misguided. Instead, he shows that it constitutes Plato's greatest philosophical investigation of political life. In this transformative re-appraisal, Balot reveals that Plato's goal was to cultivate a tragic attitude toward our political passions, commitments, and aspirations.

Ryan K. Balot is Professor of Political Science and Classics at the University of Toronto and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. He is the author of Greed and Injustice in Classical Athens and Courage in the Democratic Polis: Ideology and Critique in Classical Athens. He edited A Companion to Greek and Roman Political Thought and is co-editor of The Oxford Handbook of Thucydides.

Chapter 1: Introduction: Interpreting Plato's Laws
Chapter 2: The Character of Kleinias
Chapter 3: The Politics and Psychology of Human History
Chapter 4: A New Beginning: Founding Magnesia
Chapter 5: Persuasive Preambles
Chapter 6: The "Second-Best" Regime: Human Nature, Property, and Acquisitiveness
Chapter 7: Warriors into Citizens: The Re-education of Thumos
Chapter 8: Developing the Citizens' Thumos in Elections and Courts
Chapter 9: The Athenian's Theology, Part I
Chapter 10: The Athenian's Theology, Part II
Chapter 11: The Rule of Nous
Chapter 12: The "Truest Tragedy" in Plato's Laws