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Plato did not have an explicit theory of natural law (he rarely used the phrase "natural law" except in Gorgias 484 and Timaeus 83e), but his concept of nature, according to John Wild, contains some of the elements of many natural law theories. [12] According to Plato, we live in an orderly universe. [13]
Though the dialogue is often noted as introducing a theory of natural law, [3] the word "nature" (Greek: φύσις phusis) is never used in the dialogue. [19] Mark Lutz argues that Socrates's account of the problematic character of law shows that the concept of natural law is incoherent. [20]
Plato's Modern Enemies and the Theory of Natural Law. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press. 1953. 259 pages. The Challenge of Existentialism. Bloomington: Indiana Univ. Press. 1955. 297 pages. (Reissued). Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. 1979. ISBN 0-313-21127-2. Human freedom and social order: an essay in Christian philosophy.
Plato was not the only Ancient Greek author writing about the law systems of his day, and making comparisons between the Athenian and the Spartan laws. Notably, the Constitution of the Spartans by Xenophon , the Constitution of the Athenians , wrongly attributed to Xenophon, and the Constitution of the Athenians , possibly by Aristotle or one ...
This conclusion was explicitly (and notoriously) drawn by early modern political theorist Hugo Grotius: "What we have been saying [about the natural law] would have a degree of validity even if we should concede that which cannot be conceded without the utmost wickedness, that there is no God, or that the affairs of men are of no concern to him ...
Popper also discusses Plato's theory of degeneration in the state, where degeneration is a natural evolutionary law that causes decay in all generated things. Plato suggests that knowledge of breeding and the Platonic Number can prevent racial degeneration, but lacking a purely rational method, it will eventually occur.
Hegel respected Plato's theories of state and ethics much more than those of the early modern philosophers such as Locke, Hobbes and Rousseau, whose theories proceeded from a fictional "state of nature" defined by humanity's "natural" needs, desires and freedom. For Hegel this was a contradiction: since nature and the individual are ...
Plato's most self-critical dialogue is the Parmenides, which features Parmenides and his student Zeno, which criticizes Plato's own metaphysical theories. Plato's Sophist dialogue includes an Eleatic stranger. These ideas about change and permanence, or becoming and Being, influenced Plato in formulating his theory of Forms. [54]