Journal Page

Epinomis, an appendix to Laws and traditionally considered spurious, extends the question of what knowledge is necessary for governance. The Athenian Visitor (who, in my view, is a stand-in for Socrates) argues that while people desire wisdom, they lack clarity on how it is attained. This concern echoes throughout Laws, but in Epinomis, it sharpens into a specific inquiry: how does one come to know something in a way that transcends mere reasoning? The dialogue suggests that true wisdom is inseparable from understanding the divine and the cosmic order, particularly through mathematics and astronomy. The study of the heavens, it argues, reveals the rational structure of the universe and aligns the soul with divine intelligence. This mystical and almost religious view of wisdom presents it as an intuitive mastery – like the efficiency of good reasoning in chess – where understanding emerges without the need for explicit rational formulation, bringing one closer to the gods.