Laws

The Laws is Plato's longest and most practical dialogue. On a road in Crete, an Athenian Stranger talks with a Cretan and a Spartan about the best way to organize a city. Instead of the ideal republic of philosophers, they design a workable colony, the city of the Magnetes, with laws for education, marriage, property, crime, and worship. The conversation asks what law is for: should it only command, or should it also persuade and educate? It defends the rule of law, argues that officials must obey it, and proposes a Nocturnal Council to guard the city's constitution. Book X offers one of the earliest philosophical defenses of the existence and providence of the gods.

This edition is for general readers, students, and book clubs. It contains the complete text of Plato's Laws in Benjamin Jowett's translation, together with Jowett's own Introduction and Analysis and his Excursus on the Laws and the institutions of Crete, Sparta and Athens. A new introduction explains who Plato was, when and why the Laws was written, and what to notice while reading. A guide to key ideas introduces the main speakers and arguments. A summary follows the course of the dialogue from beginning to end. Themes highlight the purpose of law, education, religion, the mixed constitution, and the rule of law. A glossary explains old and unusual terms that appear in the text. Discussion questions help readers and groups talk through the work's central questions.