Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
New York, NY : Oxford University Publisher, 2017.
Description
Julia Annas presents a study of Plato's account of the relation of virtue to law: how it developed from the Republic to the Laws, and how his ideas were taken up by Cicero and by Philo of Alexandria. Annas shows that, rather than rejecting the approach to an ideal society in the Republic (as generally thought), Plato is in both dialogues concerned with the relation of virtue to law, and obedience to law, and presents, in the Laws, a more careful and sophisticated account of that relation. His approach in the Laws differs from his earlier one, because he now tries to build from the political cultures of actual societies (and their histories) instead of producing a theoretical thought-experiment.
Media reviews
Julia Annas is a major advocate of the branch of ethical theory that in modern normative ethics has come to be called ‘virtue ethics’ (Annas 2005, 2011). Since Annas considers ancient ethical theory a classical version of virtue ethics, she often draws on ancient ethics to clarify the virtue
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ethical position (Annas 2005, 515). In her most recent monograph, Annas reverses the direction, offering an interpretation of Plato’s Laws along the lines of virtue ethics. Plato’s last work is no less committed to the position that happiness requires virtue than the Republic, yet differs in assigning obedience to law a major role in the acquisition of virtue. Annas sets herself the goal of assessing this role, arguing that “Plato now insists that education for virtue on the part of the citizens requires them to learn explicitly, and internalize, obedience to the city’s laws” (4). She highlights a “bold” move on Plato’s part to bring together the idea of strict obedience to the laws, epitomized in the idea that the citizens of the ideal city of Magnesia should be ‘slaves of the laws’, with the notion that free citizens are “entitled to know what the point is of their laws” (105). On her account, the extended preambles in the Laws supply the kind of explanation necessary to develop virtue (“laws are needed to develop the virtues”, 105, cf. 150) because they enable the citizens “to understand the point of their laws, whether by rational argument, discussion, or appeal to non-rational factors like fear” (98). Show Less
Language
Original language
English
Pages
243
ISBN
9780198755746