With the advent of traditions based on revealed law, political philosophy was forced to reorient its approach to the topic of law. Yet it remains in question whether the classical tradition’s medieval inheritors ever broke entirely with their pagan forebears. As a contribution to that debate, this dissertation compares the discussions of law found in Plato’s Statesman and Laws with the parallel accounts found in Maimonides’ Guide of the Perplexed and in the Book of Roots written by the late-medieval Maimonidean Joseph Albo. The benefit of a comparative approach is that through these authors’ convergences and differences we may see problems that are inherent in law as such and those that may be related to divine law in particular. Plato subjected divine law to his critique of law as such: unlike prudence, law cannot address what is rare or novel because its commands are necessarily generalizations. Law so understood is a necessary evil that, at best, could merely imitate the wise ruler. At the same time, in its appeal to ancestral authority, law seeks to suppress the philosopher’s radical questioning. In a community based on revealed religion, the problems of law are intensified, especially the tension between law and philosophy. Therefore, the most urgent task for Maimonides and his followers was the clarification of the moral, psychological, and theological conditions of the very idea of divine law. Only then could they examine whether their own divine law mysteriously transcends the limits of law as such. / 1 / Seth Appelbaum

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, 1895. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Edinburgh, 2000.

Thesis--Leiden. / At head of title: Disputatio literaria inauguralis. At head of introd.: Prosopographia Platonica. "Errata et omissa": p. [238]. "Theses" [defended in dissertation]: p. [239-246]. Includes bibliographical references and index.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, 1895. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Duquesne University, 2005. / Title from document title page. Abstract included in electronic submission form. Includes bibliographical references (p. 283-285) and index.

Diss. / Filmed with: Malinin, Alexander / Hat Dörpfeld die Enneakrunos-episode bei Pausanias tatsächlich gelöst oder auf welchem Wege kann diese gelöst werden? : einige Bemerkungen zu Judeichs "Topographie von Athen"--Meeks, R. Eduardson / De poesi Graecorum satyrica -- Maisel, Joannes / Observationes in Cassium Dionem -- Mayer, Maximilian / De Euripidis mythopoeia capita duo -- Mavrokordatos, Nektarios / Der Monotheismus des Xenophanes -- May, Oswald / De attractionis usu Herodoteo -- Mayer, Philipp / Beiträge zu einer homerischen Synonymik -- Mayer, Philipp / Quaestionum Homericarum Part III : de Tiresiae Vaticinatione, quae est in Od. lib. XI, v. 119-137 -- Mayer, Philipp / Ueber den Charakter des Kreon in den beiden Oedipen des Sophokles : erste Abtheilung -- Madvig, J.N. / Disputatio de aliquot lacunis codicum Lucretii -- Madvig, Johan Nicolai / De emendatione aliquot locorum orationis Tullianae pro M. Caelio disputationis part. I -- Madvig, J.N. / De locis quibusdam grammaticae Latinae admonitiones et observationes -- Madvig, J.N. / De L. Attii didascalicis -- Mayer, Philipp / Quaestionum Homericarum part IV : in qua agitur de verbi phrazein vi atque significatione -- Mang, Anton / De attica eloquentia -- Mang, Anton / Das erste Buch der Aristotelischen Topik -- Man, Guillelmus de / Disputatio juridica inauguralis ad Orationem M. Tullii Ciceronis pro Cn. Plancio -- Anton, A.F.M. / Num ad veritatem Tacitus in Ann. I. et II. narravit de expeditionibus Germanici -- Mähly, J. / De Drusi atque Maecenatis epicediis deque Taciteo dialogo criticae -- May, Karl / De ratione et via artis criticae quam inde ab Hofmanno Peerlcampio recentiores editores in recensendis Horatii carminibus inierint -- Mayser, Edwin / Grammatik der griechischen Papyri aus der Ptolimäerzeit : I. Teil -- Matschky, Theodor / Bemerkungen zur Lektüre des Horaz -- Macke, Reinhold / Die römischen Eigennamen bei Tacitus I -- Macke, Reinhold / Die römischen Eigennamen bei Tacitus II. Includes bibliographical references.

Diss.--Bonn. / Bibliography: p. 115-117.

Diss.--Bonn. / Bibliography: p. 115-117.

According to Plato, we live in a substitute world. The things we see around us are shadows of reality, imperfect imitations of perfect originals. Beyond the world of the senses, there is another, changeless world, more real and more beautiful than our own. But how can we get at this world, or attain knowledge of it, when our senses are unreliable and the perfect philosophical method remains out of reach? In the Divided Line passage of the Republic, Plato is clear that mathematics has a role to play, but the debate about the exact nature of that role remains unresolved. My reading of the Divided Line might provide the answer. I propose that the ‘mathematical’ passages of the Meno and Phaedo contain evidence that we can use to construct the method by which Plato means us to ascend to knowledge of the Forms. In this dissertation, I shall set out my reading of Plato’s Divided Line, and show how Plato’s use of mathematics in the Meno and Phaedo supports this view. The mathematical method, adapted to philosophy, is a central part of the Line’s ‘way up’ to the definitions of Forms that pure philosophy requires. I shall argue that this method is not, as some scholars think, the geometric method of analysis and synthesis, but apagōgē, or reduction. On this reading, mathematics is pivotal on our journey into the world of the Forms.