Performing Citizenship in Plato’s Laws

In the Laws, Plato theorizes citizenship as simultaneously a political, ethical, and aesthetic practice. His reflection on citizenship finds its roots in a descriptive psychology of human experience, with sentience and, above all, volition seen as the primary targets of a lifelong training in the values of citizenship. In the city of Magnesia described in the Laws erôs for civic virtue is presented as a motivational resource not only within the reach of the ''ordinary'' citizen, but also factored by default into its educational system. Supporting a vision of ''perfect citizenship'' based on an internalized obedience to the laws, and persuading the entire polity to consent willingly to it, requires an ideology that must be rhetorically all-inclusive. In this city ''ordinary'' citizenship itself will be troped as a performative action: Magnesia''s choral performances become a fundamental channel for shaping, feeling and communicating a strong sense of civic identity and unity.

In the Laws, Plato theorizes citizenship as simultaneously a political, ethical, and aesthetic practice. His reflection on citizenship finds its roots in a descriptive psychology of human experience, with sentience and, above all, volition seen as the primary targets of a lifelong training in the values of citizenship. In the city of Magnesia described in the Laws erôs for civic virtue is presented as a motivational resource not only within the reach of the ''ordinary'' citizen, but also factored by default into its educational system. Supporting a vision of ''perfect citizenship'' based on an internalized obedience to the laws, and persuading the entire polity to consent willingly to it, requires an ideology that must be rhetorically all-inclusive. In this city ''ordinary'' citizenship itself will be troped as a performative action: Magnesia''s choral performances become a fundamental channel for shaping, feeling and communicating a strong sense of civic identity and unity.