A review by cadonelson
The Laws of Plato by Plato

5.0

I literally got anxious toward the end because I thought he was about to answer the central question of the Meno (What is ‘Virtue’ (arete) as a whole; that is, what is it which is common to all virtues, such that we would say they are all Virtue) but he got around it again by saying that the Guardians of the Laws of this new city would be the ones who decided this after much intense labor and deliberation. But it’s interesting that he doesn’t say virtue comes from the gods, and is instead what is reasoned from these wisest of wise men. I think the Laws might be my favorite dialogue. It doesn’t have the most beautiful imagery, it doesn’t dwell on the more divine philosophical implications of things; Plato has already written extensively about those things in all of his other dialogues. The Laws is Plato’s last dialogue, and as such it incorporates many ideas from his previous dialogues, but doesn’t dwell on expanding them so much in the Laws. Here Plato creates a comprehensive structure in which these ideas of virtue, beauty, divinity, etc. have a place in human lives and how we order ourselves to these concepts and thus become good men, and the fact that Plato sought to undertake that task and did so in a very compelling, artful, and comprehensive way is probably the most beautiful thing Plato ever did.