Plato’s Laws, Book I: Pleasure, Pain, Vice, and Virtue

Plato’s Pod podcast continues its extended series of discussions on Plato’s longest dialogue, the Laws. In this meeting, we will finish reading Book I, picking up at 632(e) where we left off two weeks ago and continuing to the conclusion at 650(b).

The three characters in the dialogue are an unnamed Athenian, Clinias from Crete, and Megillus from Sparta. Throughout the Laws they discuss an ideal constitution for a new Cretan colony to be called Magnesia, with Clinias in its leadership. Reason will be foremost in a constitution designed to cultivate virtue among Magnesia’s citizens, unlike the constitutional order of Crete and other cities which make provision for war.

In the section that begins at 632(e), the three characters discuss the roles of pleasure, pain, vice, and virtue among citizens in the establishment of a system to maintain domestic harmony and harmony within the soul. They touch on varying interpretations of courage, and begin to address education and the importance of instilling skill and virtue among the young. They will continue to explore the subject in Book II, which we will read in our next meeting.

As we read the Laws and try to make sense of its logic and principles, it may help to recall the following among the principal elements of Plato’s perspective on universal logic: every physical thing comes to be from a cause, the universe is spherical, the universe itself has a soul, there is a universal distinction between infinite Being and limited representations of being in Becoming, the universe consists of both the visible and the invisible, the soul consists of three parts (reason moderating the other two which are need and desire), knowledge exists in a divided line, and the Forms are the means of universal definition.

All are welcome to participate in the discussion, although please relate your comments to Plato’s text. To get the most from the session, participants should read the selection from the dialogue in advance, a free version of which is available online at http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Plat.+Laws+1&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0166.

You can listen to the entire library of the podcast, now in its 4th season, at https://rss.com/podcasts/platospod/ or on your favourite podcasting platform. The recording of our previous meeting will be posted a few days in advance of this session.

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BEFORE THE MEETUP: Please visit https://1drv.ms/u/s!AqvPwkIofv4UaFldrPpbva3VSXI?e=3Y7PjP for selections from the text that will be reviewed at the outset of the discussion, as well as questions that we will aim to address in our discussion. You can also find there as questions and themes that we explored in our previous meetups on many of Plato’s other dialogues. Before each meeting we will update this link with some questions and material for discussion. Our meetings will generally be scheduled every two weeks on Sunday at 4 p.m. eastern. During our dialogue on the dialogue, participants are encouraged to relate their comments to Plato's text, making reference to the Stephanus marginal number for the passage so the rest can follow in the reading.

There are many translations of Plato’s works available, and your public library should have multiple editions in print or e-book format. Participants with a particular interest in Plato might be interested in purchasing Plato: Complete Works in e-book or print (https://www.amazon.ca/Plato-Complete-Works/dp/0872203492/), which is the source we quote in the podcast series.

Whether new to or experienced with Plato, all are welcome to the dialogue and to sharing in the discovery and learning.

This Meetup will take place on Zoom. Please RSVP to access the Zoom link at your Meetup Account.