Plato – Laws, Book V (Live Reading)

The Laws, Plato's longest dialogue, is a comprehensive presentation of the practical consequences of Plato's philosophy, a necessary corrective to the more visionary and utopian Republic. In this animated encounter between an Athenian, Spartan, and Cretan, not only do we see reflected, in Plato's own thought, eternal questions of the relation between political theory and practice, but we also witness the working out of a detailed plan for a new "second best" political order that embodies the results of Plato's mature reflections on moral psychology, ethics, the family, the status of women, property rights, criminal law, the role of religion, music, and the fine arts, and other topics. The core ideas of the Laws — a mixed constitution, the rule of law, citizen participation, and education as the foundation of good governance — continue to resonate with political theory and practice today.

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We'll be continuing from Book V, 735a (the previous meeting started at Book V, 730e).

The dramatic action is as follows: Three elders—an Athenian, a Spartan, and a Cretan—walk the path of Minos and discuss laws and law-giving.

No particular edition is required but we can discuss what we want to use during the meeting. Because of this, sharing some editions generally available digitally in the comments may be helpful. I'll also try to keep the Greek text handy (probably through a Loeb edition, but anyone can look at Perseus as well).

If you want to familiarize yourself with the text in advance here are some different editions:

On Perseus, Shorely (HTML): https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0166

Plato's Complete Works:

PDF: https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=B670E9AEA7C9F52B2D40D63FF84F5600

Various translations are available here: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/0armzfddkj87t9fjo75go/AFztUySl3qpiSz-pSM8Agf8?rlkey=p8425itlurj7puqqkkeeztuny&st=67999vwb&dl=0