Political freedom, self-determination and free will in Plato

It is not easy to identify a doctrine of free will in the Platonic dialogues, since the Greek lexicon lacks a term for this concept. However, the first formulation of this theory in the history of Western thought can be traced in the corpus Platonicum. This study analyses the philosophical concept of freedom in Plato’s thought through two aspects: firstly, it examines the concept of political freedom, ἐλευθερία, which is declined in a particularly original way by Plato. Secondly, a doctrine of free will is traced in some passages of the dialogues, demonstrating the presence and importance of this notion in Plato’s philosophical thought.