Plato’s Cretan Colony: Theology and Religion in the Political Philosophy of the Laws by Carl Eugene Young III Department of Classical Studies Duke University Date:_______________________ Approved: ___________________________ Jed W. Atkins, Supervisor ___________________________ Peter H. Burian ___________________________ N. Gregson G. Davis ___________________________ Michael A. Gillespie ___________________________ William A. Johnson Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Classical Studies in the Graduate School of Duke University 2016 ABSTRACT Plato’s Cretan Colony: Theology and Religion in the Political Philosophy of the Laws by Carl Eugene Young III Department of Classical Studies Duke University Date:_______________________ Approved: ___________________________ Jed W. Atkins, Supervisor ___________________________ Peter H. Burian ___________________________ N. Gregson G. Davis ___________________________ Michael A. Gillespie ___________________________ William A. Johnson An abstract of a dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Classical Studies in the Graduate School of Duke University 2016 Copyright by Carl Eugene Young III 2016 Abstract The Laws is generally regarded as Plato’s attempt to engage with the practical realities of political life, as opposed to the more idealistic, or utopian, vision of the Republic. Yet modern scholars have often felt disquieted at the central role of religion in the Laws’ second-best city and regime. There are essentially the two dominant interpretations on offer today: either religion supports a repressive theocracy, which controls every aspect of the citizens’ lives to such an extent that even philosophy itself is discouraged, or religion is an example of the kind of noble lie, which the philosopher must deceive the citizens into believing—viz., that a god, not a man, is the author of the regime’s laws. I argue that neither of these interpretations do justice to the dialogue’s intricately dramatic structure, and therefore to Plato’s treatment of civil religion. What I propose is a third position in which Plato both takes seriously the social and political utility of religion, and views theology as a legitimate, and even necessary, subject of philosophical inquiry without going so far as to advocate theocracy as the second best form of regime. I conclude that a proper focus on the dialogue form, combined with a careful historical analysis of Plato’s use of social and political institutions, reveals an innovative yet traditional form of civil religion, purified of the harmful influence of the poets, based on the authority of the oracle at Delphi, and grounded on a philosophical conception of god as the eternal source of order, wisdom, and all that is good. Through a union of iv traditional Delphic theology and Platonic natural theology, Plato gives the city of the Laws a common cult acceptable to philosopher and non-philosopher alike, and thus, not only bridges the gap between religion and philosophy, but also creates a sense of community, political identity, and social harmony—the prerequisites for political order and stability. The political theology of the Laws, therefore, provides a rational defense of the rule of law reconceived as the application of divine Reason (νοῦς) to human affairs. v To Renée ἡγεµόσυνα vi Table of Contents Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... iv Abbreviations ................................................................................................................................ x Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 1 Survey of Scholarship .............................................................................................................. 2 Thesis .......................................................................................................................................... 6 Overview of the Chapters ........................................................................................................ 9 1. Reading the Laws ..................................................................................................................... 14 1.1 The Laws as a Political Dialogue ..................................................................................... 23 1.2 Multiple levels of discourse ............................................................................................ 30 1.3 Philosophical and Non-philosophical Readers ............................................................ 41 1.4 On the relationship between the Laws and the Republic .............................................. 50 1.4.1 Possibility, Paradigmatism, and Political Demiurgy ........................................... 59 1.4.2 Utopia or Practical Political Proposal? ................................................................... 68 1.5 Conclusions ....................................................................................................................... 73 2. Plato’s Theology of Νοῦς ....................................................................................................... 77 2.1 What does Νοῦς mean? ................................................................................................... 88 2.2 The Phaedo: Cosmology and the Theory of Forms ....................................................... 98 2.3 Νοῦς as the Cause of Order in the Philebus ................................................................ 105 2.4 Νοῦς, the Demiurge, and the Cosmic Soul in the Timaeus ....................................... 110 2.4.1 Εἰκὸς Μῦθος ............................................................................................................ 116 vii 2.4.2 The Ontological Status of Νοῦς in the Timaeus ................................................... 121 2.5 “God in the true sense of the word”—Νοῦς in Laws X ............................................. 129 2.5.1 Soul as the First Principle of Motion .................................................................... 131 2.5.2 The First Cause ........................................................................................................ 136 2.6 Conclusions ..................................................................................................................... 143 3. Magnesia’s Civil Religion .................................................................................................... 148 3.1 Imitatio Dei: Magnesia’s Founding Principle .............................................................. 156 3.1.1 “Becoming like God” and Political Demiurgy .................................................... 161 3.2 Sources of Religious Authority ..................................................................................... 169 3.2.1 Homer and Delphi .................................................................................................. 175 3.3 The “Method of Correct Regulation”: The Application of Divine Νοῦς to Human Affairs ..................................................................................................................................... 184 3.4 Religious Legislation ...................................................................................................... 195 3.4.1 The Cult of Astral Deities and the Festival of Apollo-Helios ........................... 206 3.5 Conclusions ..................................................................................................................... 212 4. Freedom, Equality, and the Mixed Constitution .............................................................. 216 4.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 216 4.2 ᾿Εγκράτεια as a Concept of Moral Freedom .............................................................. 218 4.2.1 Positive and Negative Liberty ............................................................................... 222 4.2.2 Self-Mastery as Moral Freedom ............................................................................ 227 4.2.3 Self-Mastery and the Sentimental Education of the Magnesians ..................... 231 viii 4.3 Political Freedom and the Mixed Constitution .......................................................... 239 4.3.1 The Dorian Monarchies (683c-693c) ...................................................................... 241 4.3.2 The Spartan Mixed Constitution ........................................................................... 247 4.3.3 Persia and Athens: Two Mother Constitutions ................................................... 256 4.4 Mathematics and the Mixed Constitution ................................................................... 271 4.5 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 280 5. The Rule of Law and the Rule of Philosophy ................................................................... 284 5.1 The Rule of Law and the Rule of Philosophy ............................................................. 288 5.1.1 Law and Philosophy in the Mythical Founding of Magnesia ........................... 294 5.1.2