Author Meets Critics: Ballingall’s "Plato’s Reverent City"

Session Submission Type: Author meet critics

Session Description

In “Plato’s Reverent City,” Robert Ballingall offers an original interpretation of Plato’s “Laws” and a new account of its enduring importance. Ballingall argues that the “Laws” affords a unique perspective for understanding the contempt of lawful civility convulsing modern societies. The book shows how Plato anticipates this worrying trend with remarkable foresight yet locates its germ in a novel cause. Contemporary observers point to economic disruption, persistent racism, and communication technology to explain the so-called new populism, but the “Laws” dwells on the disruptive consequences of neglecting a certain virtue—reverence, the capacity for showing due respect for what exceeds and circumscribes the human condition. Reverence uses emotions of self-assessment, particularly awe and shame, to call us back to the implications of being human, especially as human nature both engenders and frustrates longings to transcend itself. On Ballingall’s reading, the “Laws” looks to reverence as the root of ethical learning in fallible citizens. Constitutional government depends on such learning, but deep psychological currents incline most of us away from it. To practice the virtues that are its fruit thus demands refusing the inclinations that are its bane, and it is reverence that supplies the needed impetus on Plato’s account. Inasmuch as reverence has vanished from the modern world, Ballingall argues that we can ill-afford to dismiss Plato’s warning that the rule of law and even civilized life depends on its observance.

This roundtable brings together established and emerging scholars of classical political thought to engage the interpretation that Ballingall has developed. The panel is chaired by Ariel Helfer, author of two studies of Platonic political philosophy and translator of Plato’s “Letters.” Brent Cusher, Arlene Saxonhouse, and Devin Stauffer will serve as critics. Cusher has written a doctoral dissertation and several articles on Plato’s “Laws” and more recently has developed a research program in leadership studies whose themes very much intersect with Ballingall’s interpretation. Saxonhouse is the author of important, wide-ranging studies in the history of political thought, several of which grapple with the political psychology of shame in ancient Athens. Devin Stauffer specializes in classical and early modern political philosophy and has published two well-regarded books on Plato. Ballingall will respond to these critics and we will be sure to leave time for attendees’ questions and discussion.

Sub Unit

• Related Groups / Society for Greek Political Thought

Chair

• Ariel Helfer Wayne State University

Presenters

• Brent Edwin Cusher Christopher Newport University

• Arlene W. Saxonhouse University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

• Devin Stauffer University of Texas at Austin

• Robert A. Ballingall University of Maine