Comparing Lives in Plato, Laws 5

Phronesis 58 (4):319-346 (2013)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

In Laws 5, the Athenian argues in favour of virtuous over vicious lives on the basis that the former are preferable to the latter when we consider the pleasures and pains in each. This essay offers an interpretation of the argument which does not attribute to the Athenian an exclusively hedonist axiology. It argues for a new reading of the division of ‘types of life’ at 733c-d and suggests that the Athenian relies on the conclusion established earlier in the Laws that we humans take pleasure in harmony and order. Virtuous lives exhibit just such harmony and order and are therefore always more pleasant than and preferable to vicious lives.

Categories

Keywords

Reprint years

DOI

10.1163/15685284-12341255

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 92,611

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

My notes

Similar books and articles

Persuasion and Compulsion in Plato’s Laws 10.Robert Mayhew - 2007 - Polis 24 (1):91-111.
Metaphysics as rhetoric: Alfarabi's Summary of Plato's "Laws".Joshua Parens - 1995 - Albany: State University of New York Press.
Persuasion, Compulsion and Freedom in Plato's Laws.Christopher Bobonich - 1991 - Classical Quarterly 41 (2):365-388.
Plato's 'Laws': A Critical Guide.Christopher Bobonich (ed.) - 2010 - New York: Cambridge University Press.
The Authority of Writing in Plato’s Laws.Shawn Fraistat - 2015 - Political Theory 43 (5):657-677.
Plato’s Laws – status quaestionis.Dorota Zygmuntowicz - 2008 - Archiwum Historii Filozofii I Myśli Społecznej 53.
The Virtues of the "Laws".Mary Elizabeth Lenzi - 1989 - Dissertation, University of Pennsylvania
Property, Impiety, and the Problem of Ending: Plato’s Laws Books XI & XII.Eric Sanday - 2012 - In Gregory Recco & Eric Sanday (eds.), Plato's Laws: Force and Truth in Politics. Indiana University Press. pp. 215-235.
Plato's Laws_- R. F. Stalley: An Introduction to Plato's _Laws. Pp. x + 208. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1933. £15.I. M. Crombie - 1984 - The Classical Review 34 (02):207-209.
The Laws of Plato The Laws of Plato. The text, edited with Introduction, Notes, etc., by E. B. England, Litt.D. Two vols. 8vo. Pp. x + 641; 669. Manchester University Press; London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1921. 10s. + 10s. [REVIEW]R. G. Bury - 1922 - The Classical Review 36 (7-8):173-175.
The Law Most Beautiful and Best: Medical Argument and Magical Rhetoric in Plato's Laws.Randall Baldwin Clark - 2003 - Lexington Books.
The Law Most Beautiful and Best: Medical Argument and Magical Rhetoric in Plato's Laws.Randall Baldwin Clark - 2003 - Lexington Books.
Slaves in Plato's laws.Amir Meital & Joseph Agassi - 2007 - Philosophy of the Social Sciences 37 (3):315-347.
Akrasia and Self-Rule in Plato's Laws.Joshua Wilburn - 2012 - Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 43:25-53.
How Joseph De Maistre Read Plato's Laws.Michael S. Kochin - 2002 - Polis 19 (1-2):29-43.

Analytics

Added to PP
2013-10-27

Downloads
33 (#488,740)

6 months
12 (#223,952)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

James Warren
Cambridge University

Citations of this work

No citations found.

Add more citations

References found in this work

Plato's ethics.Terence Irwin - 1995 - New York: Oxford University Press.
.J. Annas (ed.) - 1976
A history of Greek philosophy.William Keith Chambers Guthrie - 1962 - New York: Cambridge University Press.
A History of Greek Philosophy.W. K. C. Guthrie - 1969 - Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia 27 (2):214-216.

View all 21 references / Add more references