Plato on Legal Normativity

Abstract

This paper attempts to determine what laws’ most fundamental normative property is for Plato. After examining the Hippias Major and the pseudo-Platonic Minos, I argue that in the Laws this property is correctness ( orthotês) which is understood as maximizing the citizens’ happiness. I argue that laws failing to do so are defective as laws because they’re not partially grounded in the relevant ethical facts and that Plato is thus a natural law theorist. The last section provides further justification for the claim that laws failing the correctness criterion are defective as laws by appealing to Plato’s understanding of practical rationality.