Freedom and Willing Servitude in Plato’s Laws with Susan Sauvé Meyer
A constitution must provide freedom to the city and the citizens must be in servitude (literally “slaves”) to the laws.
In an early milestone in the history of Western theorizing about freedom, Plato’s last dialogue, Laws, presents the twin proposals that a constitution must provide freedom to the city and that the citizens must be in servitude (literally “slaves”) to the laws. How these two proposals are to be reconciled and what conception of freedom they presuppose will be the topic of this lecture.
Bio:
Susan Sauvé Meyer is professor of philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania and a specialist in Greek and Roman philosophy. Her books include Ancient Ethics: An Introduction and Aristotle on Moral Responsibility. More than 100,000 people around the world have enrolled in her open-access online courses on ancient philosophy.
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