Universe of Platonic Thought 2024

Gravin Artyom Andreevich, CSc in Technics; Sociological Institute, Federal Center of Theoretical and Applied Sociology, Russian Academy of Sciences (Saint Petersburg, Russia), Senior Researcher; A.M.Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Moscow, Russia), Senior Researcher; National Research University Higher School of Economics (Moscow, Russia), Researcher

Davydov Tycho, CSc in Philology; Lomonosov Moscow State University (Moscow, Russia), Senior Lecturer; Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University (Kaliningrad, Russia), Junior Researcher

The Manifestation of the Unmanifest: Toward a Principle of A. F. Losev’s Dialectic · Recorded Video

Kurbanov Andrey, CSc in History; Sociological Institute, Federal Center of Theoretical and Applied Sociology, Russian Academy of Sciences (Saint Petersburg, Russia), Research Assistant; A.M.Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Moscow, Russia), Research Assistant

Spyridonova Lydia, CSc in History; Sociological Institute, Federal Center of Theoretical and Applied Sociology, Russian Academy of Sciences (Saint Petersburg, Russia), Research Fellow; A.M.Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Moscow, Russia), Research Fellow

The Ancient Sources of the Leichoudes Brothers' Manual on Epistolography for the Slavic Greek Latin Academy

The Course of Greek Epistolography by the Leichoudes Brothers: Manuscript Evidence, Temporal Context, and Circumstances of Its Creation

32nd International Conference “The Universe of Platonic Thought: Plato’s Heritage in the History of Science and Education”

Pavel Likhter, CSc in Law, Associate Professor; Penza State University (Penza, Russia), Associate Professor

Education and laws as tools for achieving a happy life in Plato's Kallipolis and Magnesia

The report is devoted to the transformation of Plato’s approach to education and laws as tools for achieving a happy life in the dialogues “State” and “Laws”. If in the first dialogue the author relies on the education of philosopher-rulers who rule society through reason (“applied theory of eidos”), then, when developing the Constitution of Magnesia, Plato no longer relies only on the power of reason and introduces a subsidiary instrument - positive law. Thus, the perspective of Plato’s holism changes: in the “State” we are talking about meaningful holism (reason + knowledge + happiness + justice), in the “Laws” the emphasis is on holistic dynamics or process: laws should be such as to prevent intolerable deficiency of one part of the soul due to the excesses of another.

Keywords: laws, education, Plato, common good, justice, state, theory of gradual degradation, holism

The issues of lawmaking and education relate to each other in Plato’s dialogues like two sides of a Mobius strip: if we go a little further along one side, we find ourselves on the other side. Discussions about fair laws in The State are intertwined with issues of proper education, and the topic of optimal education is not complete without proposals for improving regulatory regulation. In different places, the transitional link of the social regulators under consideration are the themes of justice, happiness, perfection of the language of the preamble, etc.
Maybe that’s why there is still no single answer to the question about the classification of the “State” dialogue. If we agree that its central theme is to identify the essence of justice, then the dialogue is ethical and legal. But given the special attention that Plato pays to issues of education in it, it should be recognized as more of a pedagogical treatise.
At the same time, both issues of law and issues of education in “The State” are rather of a technical nature, since they are necessary, first of all, to resolve the cardinal issue of ensuring a happy life for happy people in a happy (fair) state of Kallipolis (Greek: “κάλλος” – beauty, perfection and “πόλις” – polis). This obviously resonates with the concept of “kalokagathia” as the ideal of human upbringing, ensuring a harmonious combination of physical (external) and moral (internal) virtues.
In English-language literature, “Politeia” (Greek Πολιτεία) is traditionally translated as “Republic”, but Professor J. Castley notes that the name “Constitution” would be more successful. Through the constitution the soul of the polis will acquire harmonious proportions of reason, opinion and desire. The success of achieving such harmony depends on the skillful use of language in education and laws, which provide the opportunity for the transformation of the souls of citizens. But if the upbringing of individual individuals can be analyzed using empirical data and adjusted, then with the upbringing of the mega-soul of the polis, things are more complicated.