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On the Problem of Obedience to Law in Plato

Publication at Faculty of Arts |
2016

Abstract

The chapter disproves the contrast usually seen between the Crito and the Apology by showing that with correct understanding of Plato's concept of law, both dialogues deliver the same view. I claim that the systematic connection between law, nous, and God, far from being limited to Plato's later dialogues, such as the Laws, can be found already in the Crito.

Furthermore, I show that this systematic connection is relevant even for the historically factual Athenian laws whose validity is an inevitable condition for the Platonic-Academic project of lawgiving.