Abstract

Recent scholarship has followed Glenn Morrow in seeking to understand Plato’s politics in light of his cosmology. This essay takes a different tack and interprets the theology and cosmology of the Laws as an outgrowth of the Athenian Stranger’s conversation with Kleinias, which focuses on politics and warfare. In that sense the arguments of Book 10 are closely tied to the context of the dialogue. The Athenian Stranger’s religious ideology is not designed to be permanent or universally applicable. Rather, it is intended for an audience that finds itself immersed in an unhealthy world of motion, disorder, and antagonism.