Is Plato a Consequentialist?

Abstract

Abstract This paper examines the relations between Plato’s ethical and political philosophy and modern consequentialism. It focuses on the Republic’s and the Laws’ criterion for the correctness of laws since that is where the similarities are greatest. It argues that this criterion is consequentialist in some fundamental respects. Section 3 considers various objections to seeing Platonic affinities with consequentialism and argues that although the most common objections are not convincing, there is reason for caution about this attribution. Section 4 thus looks for consequentialism’s distinctive features in the Republic and the Laws. Section 5 discusses an argument in Republic Book 1 whose conclusion is, in principle, inconsistent with consequentialism. Section 6 argues that Laws 10’s theology leads Plato in a fully impartialist direction and to endorse a strong form of consequentialism.