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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black">Dear all,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="color:black"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="color:black">Just a reminder that Professor André Laks (Universidad Panamericana, Mexico City) will be presenting his paper, ‘Actualizing Plato’s Laws’ at the next Critical Antiquities Workshop. The meeting will take place on <b>Friday, May 7
11am-12:30pm</b> Sydney time (that’s Thursday, May 6 9-10:30pm in the eastern US). The abstract is posted at the end of this email.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="color:black"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<b><span style="color:black">To receive a Zoom link, please sign up for Critical Antiquities Network announcements<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/t9bzCP7LAXfKo5GxPTzDWhj?domain=signup.e2ma.net/"><span style="color:#0563C1">here</span></a>.
Please note, if you have already subscribed to the mailing list, you will receive the Zoom link and need not sign up again</span></b><span style="color:black">.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="color:black"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="color:black">Best wishes,<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="color:black">Tristan Bradshaw and Ben Brown<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="color:black"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="color:black">Abstract: <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="color:black">Plato’s last and longest dialogue is a fascinating, but little frequented work, even if progress has been made among specialists during the last 30 years or so. This is paradoxical. One cannot conceive of Aristotle <i>Politics</i>,
of Polybius’ analysis of the Roman constitution or of Cicero’s pair <i>Republic</i>/<i>Laws</i><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>– not to speak about the Church Fathers and the Founding Fathers – without referring to Plato’s <i>Laws</i>. For it is
there that we find, for the first time, four basic concepts and principles systematically articulated in a cluster that proved to be of lasting political value: that all unaccountable power corrupts; that law should rule; that a ‘mixed’ constitution is the
best that human beings can achieve; and that laws require a preamble. On the other hand, actual readers of the <i>Laws</i>, at least in the world most of us still live in, are not likely to feel much affinity with Plato’s ultimate political proposals. There
is little doubt that Plato’s “second city” accentuates rather than alleviates the most unpleasant tendencies of the <i>Republic</i>, and that it shows a great number of traits that are, at best, questionable, and at worst – using an anachronistic word that
is now at home in the political vocabulary – ‘totalitarian’. The question I want to discuss in my talk is how to think about the relationship between importance, influence and distancing in the case of a work that represents a fundamental benchmark in the
history of political thought. But the question is of a more general nature, too.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><b><span style="font-size:8.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#4D4D4D;mso-fareast-language:EN-AU">Tristan Bradshaw</span></b><span style="font-size:8.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#4D4D4D;mso-fareast-language:EN-AU">
<br>
Postdoctoral Research Fellow | Co-director, Critical Antiquities Network
<br>
<b>The University of Sydney<br>
</b>Department of Classics and Ancient History<b> <br>
</b>School of Philosophical and Historical Inquiry, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:8.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#4D4D4D">H606, Main Quadrangle | The University of Sydney | NSW | 2006
<b><br>
</b> +61 406 747 955 </span><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><br>
</span><b><span style="font-size:8.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif"><a href="mailto:tristan.bradshaw@sydney.edu.au"><span style="color:#0563C1">tristan.bradshaw@sydney.edu.au</span></a></span></b><span style="font-size:8.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#4D4D4D">
|</span><span style="font-size:11.0pt"> </span><b><span style="font-size:8.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif"><a href="mailto:fass_can@sydney.edu.au"><span style="color:#0563C1">fass_can@sydney.edu.au</span></a><span style="color:#4D4D4D">
</span></span></b><o:p></o:p></p>
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