Abstract

The Law Most Beautiful and Best is a thoughtful and creative examination of the role irrational rhetoric ought to play in persuading citizens to voluntarily obey laws. Author Randall Baldwin Clark explores the figure of the physician in Plato's Laws to address this question, identifying the subtle ways in which Plato uses the physician's role in healing as a metaphor for the task of governance and arguing that Plato hints that rational discourse may ultimately be inadequate as a persuasive technique