Plato on Virtue and the Law

• Main Author: Berges, Sandrine
• Format: eBook
• Language: English
• Published: London Bloomsbury Publishing Plc 2012; Continuum
• Edition: 1
• Series: Continuum studies in ancient philosophy
• Subjects: Dialogues; Ethics; Law; Plato; Selections; Virtue

Ancient philosophy is no longer an isolated discipline. Recent years have seen the development of a dialogue between ancient and contemporary philosophers writing on central issues in moral and political philosophy. The renewed interest in character and virtue as ethical concepts is one such issue,...

Table of Contents:

• 3. Can wisdom-promoting laws be produced democratically? -- 4. Two examples: racism and sexism -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W
• Intro -- Contents -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- Chapters overview -- 1. Some Key Concepts in Ancient Virtue Ethics -- 1. Plato and Aristotle's virtue ethics -- 2. Agent-focused and agent-based virtue ethics -- 3. What is virtue jurisprudence? -- 2. Obedience and Persuading the Laws in the Crito -- 1. Introduction -- 2. The incompatibility problem introduced -- 3. Unconditional obedience -- 4. Agreement -- 5. The role of the Laws: the parent analogy -- 6. The Crito, the Apology, and civil disobedience -- 3. Promoting and Preserving Virtue in the Menexenus -- 1. Introduction -- 2. The relevance of Plato's proposal to contemporary debates -- 3. Alternative accounts: Slote and the Republic -- 4. The argument in the Menexenus -- 5. Why the virtue politics account is not overly paternalistic -- 4. Virtue as Mental Health in the Gorgias and Other Dialogues -- 1. The model of psychic health in Plato -- 2. How the model works: elenchos as therapy -- 3. Virtue and the situationists -- 4. Community service for offenders as elenctic therapy: a case study -- 5. Paternalism in the Republic -- 1. A problem and a solution? -- 2. Paternalism in the Republic -- 3. Educating the philosopher kings and the rest -- 4. Paternalism in education -- 5. Conclusion -- 6. The Statesman and Equity -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Two attitudes to the laws in the Statesman -- 3. The anti-democratic reading of the second claim -- 4. Equity -- 5. An objection -- 6. Making way for the Laws -- 7. The Laws: Persuading the Citizens -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Preambles -- 3. The two audiences for the preambles -- 4. Are the preambles paternalistic? -- 5. Persuading the laws -- 8. Towards Virtue-promoting Democratic Institutions -- 1. A flourishing environment: from laws to institutions -- 2. Can democratic institutions be wisdom-promoting?