Plato's Laws

From the very first line of Plato's Laws - θεὸς ἤ τις ἀνθρώπων ὑμῖν, ὦ ξένοι, εἴληφε τὴν αἰτίαν τῆς τῶν νόμων διαθέσεως - "Is it a god or some human being, strangers, who is given the credit for laying down your laws" - in fact, from the first word, God, you get the sense that this book will raise the big questions about the nature of law and political life, questions that inevitably get us to think about the divine.

This is a book that suggests that the art of politics is "the art whose business it is to care for souls." It's a book that in the first few pages discusses the modern, Hobbesian thesis that man is a wolf to man, and that man in a state of nature exists in a war of all against all. It's a book of profound wisdom and insight, a true masterpiece of political science.

I've been wanting to teach this book since I first studied it as an undergraduate student over ten years ago. Several Millerman School courses mention it in passing. But the time has finally come to dedicate a full course to this great book. I'm excited for you to discover the richness, humour, complexity, and genius of Plato's Laws.