Reason and Law in Plato's Laws

This article, which deals with Plato’s political thought in Laws, makes an attempt to study the position of law in Plato’s thought and its differences from philosopher’s governing with regard to Plato’s view on reason. In other words, it is going to examine the evolutionary process of Plato’s political thought and its epistemological foundations from philosopher’s governing to law governing. Therefore, this paper intends to show that the change in Plato’s epistemological formulation based on reason has led to the change of the content of his thought about various issues including political thought as well as the political organization of the city; and this very change can be seen in his writings when one goes from Republic to Laws. Regarding the philosopher’s problem in running a city, the result of Statesman and Laws is the necessity of law and managing the city based on a set of rules in which all the details are pointed out. Law is a keyword which Plato regards as the answer to the city problems and an alternative solution to the philosopher’s governing.