The Refutation of Traditional Theism in Laws x 905d8-907b4

Abstract

In Laws x, the Athenian refutes three forms of impiety: atheism, deism, and traditional theism, which holds that the gods can be appeased via sacrifices. This article offers a careful reconstruction of the last refutation (905d8-907b4) as a self-standing, but dialectical, reductio ad absurdum. I then use the argument as a test case for analyzing how the preludes—Plato’s great legal innovation—are supposed to function.