Chapter 1: Introduction: Interpreting Plato's Laws Chapter 2: The Character of Kleinias Chapter 3: The Politics and Psychology of Human History Chapter 4: A New Beginning: Founding Magnesia Chapter 5: Persuasive Preambles Chapter 6: The "Second-Best" Regime: Human Nature, Property, and Acquisitiveness Chapter 7: Warriors into Citizens: The Re-education of Thumos Chapter 8: Developing the Citizens' Thumos in Elections and Courts Chapter 9: The Athenian's Theology, Part I Chapter 10: The Athenian's Theology, Part II Chapter 11: The Rule of Nous Chapter 12: The "Truest Tragedy" in Plato's Laws

"Original insights and important lessons about the limits of politics and philosophy abound in Ryan K. Balot's persuasive new reading of Plato's complex and challenging Laws. With keen attention to the nuances of the arguments and the dialogue's dramatic energy and a sensitivity to the rhetorical niceties necessitated by the Athenian Stranger's two audiences - especially the thumotic Kleinias and the sophisticated reader familiar with Plato's other writings- Balot practices the philanthropy he finds in the Athenian Stranger's efforts to educate his readers philosophically about politics." -- Arlene W. Saxonhouse, University of Michigan "Long and serious meditation, rooted in careful textual analysis and interpretation, has produced this original and illuminating reconsideration of Plato's most important work in political philosophy-the study of which will henceforth need to proceed by sustained reckoning with this book." -- Thomas L. Pangle, University of Texas at Austin "This is a wonderful book-our best guide to understanding Plato's Laws. Ryan K. Balot's reading is close and deep, moving through the text's surface to Plato's overall political philosophy and finally to the relationship between philosophic and political ways of life. Balot brings out tensions between them and several means of reconciling such tensions. The book culminates in a strikingly novel account of Plato's Nocturnal Council. The writing is clear throughout, dialectical in Plato's sense of conversational, celebrating and practicing the value of open-ended Platonic inquiry." -- Stephen G. Salkever, Bryn Mawr College "Balot's thoughtful commentary is a tour de force of good scholarship in the service of insightful philosophical interpretation.... Highly recommended." -- CHOICE "Balot's thoughtful commentary is a tour de force of good scholarship in the service of insightful philosophical interpretation.... Highly recommended." -- CHOICE "Balot's thoughtful commentary is a tour de force of good scholarship in the service of insightful philosophical interpretation." -- Choice "This is a stimulating and well-researched book.... [It] raises many fascinating questions and will be of use to graduate students and scholars of classics and philosophy." -- Bryn Mawr Classical Review "This is a stimulating and well-researched book." -- Nicholas Baima, Bryn Mawr Classical Review

Ryan K. Balot is Professor of Political Science and Classics at the University of Toronto and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. He is the author of Greed and Injustice in Classical Athens and Courage in the Democratic Polis: Ideology and Critique in Classical Athens. He edited A Companion to Greek and Roman Political Thought and is co-editor of The Oxford Handbook of Thucydides.

Selling point: Offers a sequential reading of Plato's Laws, which allows readers to appreciate the way it unfolds a rich, surprising, and even suspenseful argument Selling point: Makes a novel and controversial argument about the key tensions, difficulties, and ambiguities of political life through a careful assessment of the dialogue's presentation of "tragedy" Selling point: Connects diverse scholarly approaches to the dialogue which have not traditionally engaged with one another