Abstract

BRUCHMULLER, Ulrike. The Possibility of the Ideal State in Plato's Republic and Laws: An Alternative to André Laks' Interpretation of Plato's Political Philosophy. Diánoia [online]. 2009, vol.54, n.63, pp.175-195. ISSN 0185-2450.

The possibility of the ideal state in the Republic is grounded dialectically on the Idea of the Good as the cause of all being. The state as hypothesis () of the Idea of corporal unity is reduced, through the unity of soul, to the unity of Ideas, guaranteed by the first principle. The state of the Laws, on the other hand, is not reduced to the unity of Ideas, but only to the unity of soul. It is the second-best state after the ideal state which is -in contrast to the thesis of Laks- also possible for men.

Keywords : philosophy of history; hypothetical method; dialectic; doctrine of the soul.