This article offers a study of literary criticism in Plato’s Laws . According to standard accounts of the history of literary criticism, fourth-century philosophers represent a break from archaic and democratic notions of poetic judgment. The interpretation presented here suggests that the Laws synthesizes archaic and contemporary critical practices. In doing so, it fashions literary criticism as a performance of philosophy, combining claims to social and political authority with the evaluation of texts according to independent, objective criteria. The Laws thereby offers a hybrid model of contemporary critical practices to extend the ideal city’s political and moral philosophy into contexts of performance.

Who Calls the Tune: Literary Criticism, Theatrocracy, and the Performance of Philosophy in Plato's Laws

How to inculcate virtue in the citizens of Magnesia by means of the dance component of choreia constitutes one of the principal concerns in the Laws (= Leg.), revealing Plato's evolving ideas about the expediency of music and paideia for the construction of his ideal city since the Republic. Indeed, a steady stream of monographs and articles on the Laws has enriched our understanding of how Plato theorizes the body as a site of intervention and choral dance as instrumental in solidifying social relations and in conditioning the ethical and political self. As one scholar has aptly put it: ‘a city and its sociopolitical character [are] effectively danced into existence.’ Drawing on this recent work, I focus on an enigmatic passage in Laws Book 7 that merits more attention than it has received, in which Plato curiously singles out Bacchic dances from those that are ‘without controversy’ (815b7–d4):
 τὴν τοίνυν ἀμφισβητουμένην ὄρχησιν δeῖ πρῶτον χωρὶς τῆς ἀναμφισβητήτου διατeμeῖν. τίς οὖν αὕτη, καὶ πῇ δeῖ χωρὶς τέμνeιν ἑκατέραν; ὅση μὲν βακχeία τ᾽ ἐστὶν καὶ τῶν ταύταις ἑπομένων, ἃς Νύμφας τe καὶ Πᾶνας καὶ Σeιληνοὺς καὶ Σατύρους ἐπονομάζοντeς, ὥς φασιν, μιμοῦνται κατῳνωμένους, πeρὶ καθαρμούς τe καὶ τeλeτάς τινας ἀποτeλούντων, σύμπαν τοῦτο τῆς ὀρχήσeως τὸ γένος οὔθ᾽ ὡς eἰρηνικὸν οὔθ᾽ ὡς πολeμικὸν οὔθ᾽ ὅτι ποτὲ βούλeται ῥᾴδιον ἀφορίσασθαι: διορίσασθαι μήν μοι ταύτῃ δοκeῖ σχeδὸν ὀρθότατον αὐτὸ eἶναι, χωρὶς μὲν πολeμικοῦ, χωρὶς δὲ eἰρηνικοῦ θέντας, eἰπeῖν ὡς οὐκ ἔστι πολιτικὸν τοῦτο τῆς ὀρχήσeως τὸ γένος, ἐνταῦθα δὲ κeίμeνον ἐάσαντας κeῖσθαι, νῦν ἐπὶ τὸ πολeμικὸν ἅμα καὶ eἰρηνικὸν ὡς ἀναμφισβητήτως ἡμέτeρον ὂν ἐπανιέναι.
 So, first of all, we should separate questionable dancing far from dancing that is without controversy. Which is the controversial kind, and how are the two to be distinguished? All the dancing that is of a Bacchic kind and cultivated by those who indulge in intoxicated imitations of Nymphs, Pans, Sileni and Satyrs (as they name them), when performing certain rites of expiation and initiation—this entire class of dancing cannot easily be marked off either as pacific or as warlike, nor as of any one particular kind. The most correct way of defining it appears to me to be this—to place it away from both pacific and warlike dancing, and to pronounce that this type of dancing is οὐ πολιτικόν; having thus set aside and dismissed it, we will now return to the warlike and pacific types, which without controversy belong to us.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/35FDABC5D8AAAFCD2DFDDD5994429D8E/S0009838820000683a.pdf/div-class-title-the-politics-of-dance-span-class-italic-eunomia-span-and-the-exception-of-dionysus-in-plato-s-span-class-italic-laws-span-div.pdf

The politics of dance: eunomia and the exception of dionysus in plato's laws

In the Laws, Plato presents an educational program for all members of the
 projected city of Magnesia, which concerns not only various kinds of
 specific knowledge, but also, and more importantly, the application of
 ethical and political virtues, in view of becoming excellent citizens and
 achieving a ?good life? in the long run, at the private and public level.
 These objectives are realised in many ways, as for example, by the people?s
 participating in the legislation and the city?s administration, by receiving
 a common fundamental education, including lessons of reading, writing,
 mathematics and astronomy; practicing sports; playing music; singing;
 dancing and also by taking an active role in religious festivals. The
 population is then divided in three groups, according to age, and they form
 ?choirs? dedicated to different divinities (the children to the Muses, the
 young people to Apollo, the elderly to Dionysus). Thus, we may deduce that
 Plato was one of the ancient Greek philosophers who supported the concept of
 ?lifelong learning,? expanded through various kinds of knowledge, skills and
 qualities. In my paper I examine the objectives, different contents of
 Plato?s pedagogical project destined to all the Magnetes, the various
 methods he proposed to use in order to arrive at its attainment, as well as
 the eventual reasons for these choices, related to his philosophical
 theories. I conclude by making a comparison with the notion of ?lifelong
 learning? as we understand it today.

/pdf/the-citizens-lifelong-learning-in-platos-laws-1ebx70j0.pdf

The citizens’ lifelong learning in Plato’s laws

\nThis article questions a longtime credo concerning Plato’s Laws, namely that the three choruses introduced in Book 2 are institutions of the dialogue’s political project. A detailed analysis of relevant passages shows that the evidence is insufficent. Rather, it is argued, this part of Book 2 is essentially plurivalent: on three separate semantic layers, the choruses illustrate political, moral-psychological and key educational issues of the Laws. Apart from explaining the disappearance of the choruses after Book 2, the proposed reading aims to bring to light an impressively artful philosophical and literary strategy of Plato’s.

The Three Choruses of Plato’s Laws and their Function in the Dialogue: A New Approach

Ce texte cherche a montrer que plusieurs allusions textuelles indiquent l'existence d'un lien significatif entre le Choeur de Dionysos et le νυκτeρινος συλλογος dans les Lois de Platon. Cette hypothese inedite se trouve confirmee par un examen attentif des diverses correspondances entre les deux instances, examen qui permet en outre de preciser la nature de leur lien. Il semble d'abord que le Choeur de Dionysos ait pour role d'apporter un complement pedagogique de «musique appliquee» a l'elite politique et scientifique de la cite. Plus important encore, le Choeur Dionysien parait etre l'organe ideologique privilegie par lequel les gouvernants du College de veille peuvent donner une forme persuasive a leur science et exercer une influence civique puissante sur l'ensemble de la population.

Annie Larivée

Papers

Du vin pour le Collège de veille? Mise en lumière d'un lien occulté entre le Choeur de Dionysos et le νυκτερινος συλλογος dans les Lois de Platon