Dialectic of the slave in the Laws of Plato
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17533/udea.ef.n63a01Keywords:
Plato, Laws, slavery, power relations, Ancient GreeceAbstract
The acceptance of slavery is one of the issues where Antiquity shows a greater lag in relation to the contemporary world; this is often adduced to criticize Greek philosophy. This paper examines the extent to which Plato’s thought in Laws can fall under or escape this imputation. It is suggested that we can find in the author a dialectic of the slave, which consists in maintaining, on the one hand, the function of slavery within the proposed social and political structure, while, on the other hand, the existence of the slave as such is questioned. Thus, it is first made a general presentation of slavery in the Laws and of the role that this institution plays in the philosophical understanding of the dialogue itself, and then a careful examination of the central passage of 6.777d5-7 is carried out. It is concluded that although, in a historical key, Plato fails to avoid the tension of this dialectic, in a philosophical key he offers its resolution in the doings of the truly just person.
Downloads
References
Altman, W. (2016). The Guardians on Trial. The Reading Order of Plato’s Dialogues from Euthyphro to Phaedo. Lexington.
Annas, J. (2010). Virtue and Law in Plato. En C. Bobonich, (Ed.), Plato’s Laws. A Critical Guide (pp. 71-91). Cambridge University Press.
Bobonich, C. (Ed.). (2010). Plato’s Laws. A Critical Guide. Cambridge University Press.
England, E. B. (Ed.). (1921). The Laws of Plato, T. 1: 1-6, T. 2: 7-12. Manchester University Press.
Flórez, A. (2012). Moneda y esencia. Una reflexión sobre economía y metafísica en la República de Platón. Ideas y Valores, 61, 143-154.
Homero. (1982). Odisea. (J. M. Pabón, trad.). Gredos.
Knoll, M. (2013). Der Status der Bürger, der Frauen, der Fremden und der Sklaven in Magnesia. En C. Horn (Ed.). Platon. Gesetze–Nomoi (pp. 143-164). Akademie. https://doi.org/10.1524/9783050064482.143
Labarbe, J. (1949). L’Homère de Platon. Les Belles Lettres.
Lohse, G. (1964), (1965), (1967). Untersuchungen über Homerzitate bei Platon. Helikon. Rivista di Tradizione e Cultura Classica dell’Università di Messina, 4, 3-28; 5, 248-295; 7, 223-231.
Mintz, A. I. (2010). Chalepa Ta Kala, Fine Things are Difficult: Socrates’ Insights into the Psychology of Teaching and Learning. Studies in Philosophy and Education, 29, 287-299. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11217-010-9178-7
Morrow, G. R. (1939). Plato and Greek Slavery. Mind, 48, 186-201. https://doi.org/10.1093/mind/XLVIII.190.186
Morrow, G. R. (1993). Plato’s Cretan City: A Historical Interpretation of the Laws. Princeton University Press.
Platón. (1980). The Laws of Plato. (T. L. Pangle, trad.). The University of Chicago Press.
Platón. (1981). Diálogos, 1: Hipias Mayor. (J. Calonge, trad.). Gredos.
Platón. (1983). Diálogos, 2: Crátilo. (J. L. Calvo, trad.). Gredos.
Platón. (1999). Diálogos, 8-9: Leyes. (F. Lisi, trad.). Gredos.
Platón. (2005). La defensa de Sócrates. Comentario filosófico y traducción española del texto de Platón. (M. García-Baró, trad.). Sígueme.
Platón. (2006). Platon. Les Lois. T. 1: 1-6, T. 2: 7-12. (L. Brisson y J.-F. Pradeau, trads.). Flammarion.
Platón. (2006). República. (J. M. Pabón y M. Fernández-Galiano, Eds., trads.). Centro de Estudios Políticos y Constitucionales.
Prauscello, L. (2014). Performing Citizenship in Plato’s Laws. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139680882
Saunders, T. J. (1991). Plato’s Penal Code. Oxford University Press.
Schöpsdau, K. (1994), (2003), (2011). Platon Werke. Nomoi (Gesetze). T. 1: 1-3; T. 2: 4-7; T. 3: 8-12. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
Stalley, R. F. (1983). An Introduction to Plato’s Laws. Hackett.
West, M. L. (Ed.). (2017). Homerus, Odyssea. Walter de Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110420234-005
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
Categories
License
Copyright (c) 2021 Alfonso Flórez
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
1. The Author retains copyright in the Work, where the term "Work" shall include all digital objects that may result in subsequent electronic publication or distribution.
2. Upon acceptance of the Work, the author shall grant to the Publisher the right of first publication of the Work.
3. The Author shall grant to the Publisher a nonexclusive perpetual right and license to publish, archive, and make accessible the Work in whole or in part in all forms of media now or hereafter known under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoCommercia-ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0), or its equivalent, which, for the avoidance of doubt, allows others to copy, distribute, and transmit the Work under the following conditions: (a) Attribution: Other users must attribute the Work in the manner specified by the author as indicated on the journal Web site;(b) Noncommercial: Other users (including Publisher) may not use this Work for commercial purposes;
4. The Author is able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the nonexclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the Work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), as long as there is provided in the document an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal;
5. Authors are permitted, and Estudios de Filosofía promotes, to post online the preprint manuscript of the Work in institutional repositories or on their Websites prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (see The Effect of Open Access). Any such posting made before acceptance and publication of the Work is expected be updated upon publication to include a reference to the Estudios de Filosofía's assigned URL to the Article and its final published version in Estudios de Filosofía.
