Abstract

The Laws is the most political of the Platonic dialogues. It also contains the most detailed discussion of theology in the Platonic corpus, indeed, one of the most extensive accounts of this subject in all of classical literature. This dissertation addresses the question of why a philosopher concerned with politics should need to undertake such a sustained discussion of the gods. Most scholars have seen the theology of the Laws either as instrumental to the dialogue's political program or as the premise from which that program is deduced. This dissertation opposes both of these reductionist accounts. When one reads the Laws as a whole and on its own terms, the theology emerges naturally from the inquiry into political regimes. ;In order to show this, I undertake an investigation of the nature of law and lawgiving through an examination of Plato's Minos. Next I examine Plato's critical political science through a discussion of the key concepts of that science as employed in the Laws. I then look at the psychology which undergirds that political science. This leads into a direct examination of the theology of the tenth book of the dialogue. This examination shows that the theology is the natural outgrowth of the Laws advocacy of a regime dedicated to human excellence, but also that the theology points beyond the city, transcending it in such a way as to open it to continues improvement and to goods which are higher than politics