Plato's Utopia Recast His Later Ethics and Politics [Hardcover]

Plato's Utopia Recastis an illuminating reappraisal of Plato's later works, which reveals radical changes in his ethical and political theory. Christopher Bobonich examines later dialogues, with a special emphasis upon theLaws, and argues that in these late works, Plato both rethinks and revises the basic ethical and political positions that he held in his better-known earlier works, such as theRepublic. This book will change our understanding of Plato. His controversial moral and political theory, so influential in Western thought, will henceforth be seen in a new light.

1. Philosophers and non-philosophers in thePhaedoandRepublic
2. Virtue , good, and happiness in theLaws
3. Parts of the soul and the psychology of virtue
4. Parts of the soul and non-rational motivations
5. The Citizens of Magnesia
References, Index

Bobonich's discussion is rich and dense, and it covers an extremely wide range of topics. Since his interpretation is supported by careful exegesis of many texts and by keen philosophical argument, the result is a book of exceptional importance for our understanding of Plato's work...by far the best account we have of the ethics and political philosophy of theLaws.It is also a major contribution to our understanding of the philosophy of mind and metaphysics of value in Plato's later dialogues. --Charles Kahn,Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy

This is by any standards a major work, which does for the later dialogues what Terence Irwin'sPlato's Ethicsdid for the earlier and middle. The comparison is in my view a fair measure not only of its scope, but also of its quality. --C. C. W. Taylor,British Journal for the History ofPhilosophy

A memorable event in Plato scholarship. --Times Literary Supplement

Bobonich's study of the Laws (along with related aspects of other post-Republic dialoglG