{"product_id":"2026200016159-secondhand-the-laws","title":"The Laws","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCondition remarks:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBook: Fair\u003cbr\u003eJacket: No dust jacket\u003cbr\u003ePages: Good\u003cbr\u003eCondition remarks: Condition as shown in image\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWritten in the twilight of his extraordinary intellectual life, Plato's The Laws stands as the philosopher's longest and most pragmatic dialogue — a sweeping blueprint for the ideal city-state that moves beyond the utopian abstractions of The Republic to grapple with the messy realities of governance, justice, and human nature. Set as a conversation between an unnamed Athenian Stranger, a Spartan named Megillos, and a Cretan named Kleinias, the work methodically constructs a legal and moral framework for a new colony, addressing everything from criminal punishment and property rights to education, religion, and the role of the arts in civic life.\n\nWhere The Republic imagines philosopher-kings ruling by wisdom alone, The Laws presents a more tempered vision, one that acknowledges human fallibility and argues that reason must be enshrined in written law to endure across generations. Plato's prose here is discursive and authoritative, blending political theory with theology and psychology in a manner that continues to challenge scholars of Western philosophy. This Penguin Classics edition makes one of antiquity's most formidable political treatises accessible to modern readers — and raises a question as urgent today as it was in ancient Athens: can any society truly legislate virtue?\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Secondhand Stock","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49342776344795,"sku":"2026200016159-SECONDHAND","price":10.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0523\/7646\/9701\/files\/ad3ca35e-8b74-4858-b567-9067bb826411.png?v=1790049204","url":"https:\/\/bookgrocer.com\/products\/2026200016159-secondhand-the-laws","provider":"Book Grocer","version":"1.0","type":"link"}