Overview
- Offers an original interpretation of Plato’s Laws
- Demonstrates how, for Plato, the rule of law depends on the observance of reverence
- Shows the relevance of studying Plato for understanding the cynical transgressiveness in modern societies
Part of the book series: Recovering Political Philosophy (REPOPH)
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Table of contents (6 chapters)
Keywords
About this book
This book offers an original interpretation of Plato’s Laws and a new account of its enduring importance. Ballingall argues that the republican regime conceived in the Laws is built on "reverence," an archaic virtue governing emotions of self-assessment—particularly awe and shame. Ballingall demonstrates how learning to feel these emotions in the right way, at the right time, and for the right things is the necessary basis for the rule of law conceived in the dialogue. The Laws remains surprisingly neglected in the scholarly literature, although this is changing. The cynical populisms haunting liberal democracies are focusing new attention on the “characterological” basis of constitutional government and Plato’s Laws remains an indispensable resource on this question, especially when we attend to the theme of reverence at its core.
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Robert Ballingall is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Maine, USA. Previously, he was a postdoctoral fellow in the Program on Constitutional Government at Harvard University and Allan Bloom Memorial Postdoctoral Fellow for Research in Classical Political Thought at the University of Toronto, where he also earned his PhD.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Plato’s Reverent City
Book Subtitle: The Laws and the Politics of Authority
Authors: Robert A. Ballingall
Series Title: Recovering Political Philosophy
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-31303-5
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Political Science and International Studies, Political Science and International Studies (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-031-31302-8Published: 16 July 2023
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-031-31305-9Due: 16 August 2023
eBook ISBN: 978-3-031-31303-5Published: 15 July 2023
Series ISSN: 2524-7166
Series E-ISSN: 2524-7174
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XVII, 236
Number of Illustrations: 1 b/w illustrations
Topics: Political Theory, Political Philosophy, Governance and Government, Theories of Law, Philosophy of Law, Legal History