Table of Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. The uniqueness of the Summary of Plato's "Laws"
2. Alfarabi's unmethodical method of reading Plato
3. Alfarabi's access to the Laws
4. The Summary's textual tradition: The contemporary debate
5. This book's structure
6. This book's audience
Part I. Metaphysics as Rhetorical Foundation of Law
1. The Roots of Laws
1. Jurisprudence and kalam
2. Why are the roots the theme of the Laws and the Summary ?
3. How philosophical kalam becomes misconstrued as metaphysical doctrine
4. The roots of the laws revisited
2. Alfarabi's Platonism
1. Alfarabi as metaphysical Neoplatonist
2. Alfarabi as political Middle Platonist: Richard Walzer
3. Alfarabi as political Aristotelian: Galston's Politics and Excellence
3. Natural Right versus Natural Law
1. Plato as ethical theorist of natural law
2. Plato as legalistic theorist of natural law
Part II. The Divergence Between Law and Intellect
4. Is the Best City Ruled by Law?
1. According to the Philosophy of Plato
2. According to the Summary
5. Plato's City and Alfarabi's Regime
1. Persian monarchy and Athenian democracy
2. The titles to rule
3. The ruling offices
4. The regime's size
6. War as a Purpose of the Second-Best Regime
1. The denigration of war as a purpose of the city
2. The rehabilitation of war and as a purpose
3. The relation between war and law
7. Legal Innovation: Law as an Imitation of Intellect
1. Changes of place: Differing natural dispositions and customs
2. Changes of time: Conservation and innovation
Part III. Shame, Indignation, and Inquiry
8. The Role of Law and Good Breeding
1. Prudence and good breeding
2. Shame, law, and honoring the body
3. Good breeding, praise and blame, and honoring the soul
9. Pleasure and Indignation
1. Divinizing pleasure or undermining shame
2. The critique of tragic music as a critique of shame
3. War games and drinking parties: Pleasure and indignation
10. Poetry and Inquiry into Law
1. The permissibility of inquiring into law
2. Artisans versus courageous men
3. Poetry, kalam, dialectic, and political science
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index