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Virtue Ethics, Politics, and the Function of Laws: The Parent Analogy in Plato's Menexenus

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 April 2009

Sandrine Berges
Sandrine Berges
Affiliation:
Bilkent University
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Abstract

Can virtue ethics say anything worthwhile about laws? What would a virtue-ethical account of good laws look like? I argue that a plausible answer to that question can be found in Plato's parent analogies in the Crito and the Menexenus. I go on to show that the Menexenus gives us a philosophical argument to the effect that laws are just only if they enable citizens to flourish. I then argue that the resulting virtue-ethical account of just laws is not viciously paternalistic. Finally, I refute the objection that the virtue-ethical account I am proposing is not distinct from a consequentialist account.

Type
Articles
Information
Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review / Revue canadienne de philosophie , Volume 46 , Issue 2 , Spring 2007 , pp. 211 - 230
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Philosophical Association 2007

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