Abstract

In the Republic, Plato constructs a program of education for the prospective guardians of his perfect state. This program is meant to provide the guardians with an absolutely firm normative foundation for their political decisions by systematically guiding them towards knowledge of the eternal Forms. The general public cannot achieve this knowledge, however, and so must accept the leadership of the guardians without question. ;In the Laws, Plato offers a different program of education to the general public. The new program extends to almost every aspect of daily life for both children and adults. Higher education receives much less attention. This revised educational program must necessarily produce a very different state from that of the Republic. ;I argue that Plato realizes in the Laws that no individuals, however philosophical, can reach an understanding of normative paradigms that can supply them with answers to all the key political questions. Transcendent norms still ground every legitimate political structure, but human beings have access to these norms only through vague and indeterminate intuitions. Legislators must nonetheless construct specific and determinate normative systems on the basis of those intuitions. ;Education must unify the community by instilling in each citizen a deep respect for the structure in place. Education must also, however, provide officials with the tools necessary for adjusting that structure as circumstances change to keep it in line with the indeterminate intuitions at its base. In my dissertation, I argue that Plato designs every key feature of the state in the Laws to facilitate this supremely difficult educational maneuver. To accomplish this task, he offers a final reconciliation of reason and pleasure in the human arena, bringing to a close the long and complex struggle between these two forces throughout his earlier dialogues