Plato on virtue and the law Sandrine Berges.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Berges, Sandrine, author.

Series:

Continuum studies in ancient philosophy.

Continuum studies in ancient philosophy

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Plato. Dialogues--Selections.

Plato.

Ethics.

Virtue.

Law.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (188 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

London New York Continuum 2009.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

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, yet Plato's contribution has been largely neglected in contemporary virtue ethics. In Plato on Virtue and the Law, Sandrine Berges seeks to address this gap in the literature by exploring the contribution that virtue ethics make to the understanding of laws alongside the interesting and plausible insights into current philosophical concerns evident in Plato's dialogues. The book argues that a distinctive virtue theory of law is clearly presented in Plato's political dialogues. Through a new reading of the Crito, Menexenus, Gorgias, Republic, Statesman and Laws, Berges shows how Plato proposes several ways in which we can understand the law from the perspective of virtue ethics.

Contents:

Chapter One: 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?

Chapter Two: 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.

Chapter Three: Promoting and Preserving Virtue in the Menexenus

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.

Chapter Four: 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.

Chapter Five: 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.

Chapter Six: 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.

Chapter Seven: The Laws: Persuading the citizens

2.Preambles.

3.The two audiences for the preambles.

4.Are the preambles paternalistic?

5.Persuading the Laws.

Chapter Eight: Towards virtue-promoting Democratic Institutions

1.A flourishing environment: from laws to institutions.

2.Can democratic institutions be wisdom promoting?

3.Can wisdom-promoting laws be produced democratically?

4. Two examples: racism and sexism

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (pages [151]-174) and index

ISBN:

9786612873263

9781472597953

1472597958

9781282873261

1282873261

9781441117199

1441117199

OCLC:

676698628