example of a rationale essay

1. Researching, Writing and Presenting Information - A How To Guide: Writing a Rationale

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Writing a Rationale

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A rationale is a set of reasons or an explanation for a course of action or beliefs.  Sometimes it is referred to as a statement of intent.  In a school context, it is most often required to explain your creative choices in response to a task. In English, the purpose of a rationale is to link your creative response to the text studied and the prompt.

It should be written in formal English and structured in logical paragraphs. The rationale should be an integrated discussion of ideas and language choices, rather than a list of techniques.  Use F-CLAP to help you with the content of your Rationale.

Form:  Why have I chosen to use this form? (Eg: poetry, painting, narrative)

Context:  What is the broader context of the piece? (Eg: social &  historical context)

Language:  What language choices have I made? How have the language choices of author's studied influenced my decisions? (Eg: structures, features, devices etc.)

Audience:  Who am I writing/creating for? (consider age, gender, cultural & religious background, biases etc. )

Purpose:  Why am I writing/creating this piece?

Always refer to your Assessment task outline for specific details to writing your rationale.

Guided Brainstorm

Click on the image below to access the fillable guided brainstorm sheet.

Suggested Structure

Rationales vary depending on the nature of the task. Please read task instructions carefully and seek clarification from your teacher about what is required. An example of a suggested structure is provided below.

Part A : Comment on the text to which you are responding.

• Give an introductory explanation of the aspect(s) of the text/stimulus material that inspired your response.

Part B : Explain the purpose/aim of your response.

• Provide a clear explanation of your intention in the response. For example, you may be focussing on a particular issue or character. You may wish to elicit an emotional response from the reader or state a philosophical view point.

Part C: Discuss your choice of medium/approach to the task Explain your choice of medium.

• For example if your response is non-written such as a poster, collage or an electronic image(s), justify your use of colour, texture, symbolism, and composition. If your response is a story you could discuss your choice of setting, characterisation and dialogue. You may have used a particular narrative structure that requires explanation
• Explain any unusual/particular features of your response. How do they enhance your response?

Your rationale should include relevant references (examples/quotations) where appropriate.

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Rationale Essay

Rationale essay overview.

Rationale refers to reasons why . And that’s the purpose of the rationale essay: to explain the reasons why you’ve chosen the courses that are listed in your degree plan. You’ll need to provide different types of reasons—personal, academic, professional—in order to explain your choices for, and structure of, your degree.  Academic and professional “reasons why”  are supported by evidence (which you will find through your research) that your courses meet the expectations of the college, the field of study, and the larger professional contexts in which you intend to use your degree. Think of the rationale essay, then, as a logical argument for the design of your degree.

Why Do I Need to Write It?

Two reasons:

• College Policy: A degree plan and its accompanying rationale essay are two products required of all ESC students as part of the 4 credits of educational planning that ESC requires.
• College Practice: A college assessment committee, which approves degrees, needs to understand the reasoning behind your choices for your degree.  Your rationale essay provides your reasons and research, proving that you have a personally-useful and educationally-valid degree.

What Goes Into It?

ESC Degree Program Rationale Policy states the following:

The rationale essay is the student’s explanation of the purposes, design and significance of her/his individual degree plan. It is likely that most students will develop their rationale early in their degree studies. Therefore, the rationale should be perceived as a planning (or prospective) document. In the rationale, each student: outlines her/his own educational and professional experience, goals, and learning needs, discusses how the degree plan reflects the educational expectations of the college (i.e., SUNY general education requirements, level and breadth of learning, and integration and progression of learning), discusses how the student’s learning reflects, or may depart from, the Empire State College Area of Study and concentration guidelines for the degree, and reflects the student’s awareness of external professional expectations, where applicable.

Who’s Going to Read It?

Your degree plan and rationale essay will be reviewed by an academic review committee that is made up of ESC faculty and professionals.  In order to approve your degree, committee members need to understand the context in which you’re pursuing your degree (your background, goals, and plans), how you’re addressing the ESC Area of Study Guidelines and SUNY General Education requirements, what relevant research you’ve done into academic and professional expectations for your degree, and how the components of your degree all fit together.

• Rationale Essay Overview. Authored by : Susan Oaks. Project : Educational Planning. License : CC BY-NC: Attribution-NonCommercial
• image with the word Why?. Authored by : 3271136. Provided by : Pixabay. Located at : https://pixabay.com/en/why-text-question-marketing-office-1780726/ . License : CC0: No Rights Reserved

How to Write the Rationale for a Research Paper

• Research Process
• Peer Review

A research rationale answers the big SO WHAT? that every adviser, peer reviewer, and editor has in mind when they critique your work. A compelling research rationale increases the chances of your paper being published or your grant proposal being funded. In this article, we look at the purpose of a research rationale, its components and key characteristics, and how to create an effective research rationale.

Updated on September 19, 2022

The rationale for your research is the reason why you decided to conduct the study in the first place. The motivation for asking the question. The knowledge gap. This is often the most significant part of your publication. It justifies the study's purpose, novelty, and significance for science or society. It's a critical part of standard research articles as well as funding proposals.

Essentially, the research rationale answers the big SO WHAT? that every (good) adviser, peer reviewer, and editor has in mind when they critique your work.

A compelling research rationale increases the chances of your paper being published or your grant proposal being funded. In this article, we look at:

• the purpose of a research rationale
• its components and key characteristics
• how to create an effective research rationale

What is a research rationale?

Think of a research rationale as a set of reasons that explain why a study is necessary and important based on its background. It's also known as the justification of the study, rationale, or thesis statement.

Essentially, you want to convince your reader that you're not reciting what other people have already said and that your opinion hasn't appeared out of thin air. You've done the background reading and identified a knowledge gap that this rationale now explains.

A research rationale is usually written toward the end of the introduction. You'll see this section clearly in high-impact-factor international journals like Nature and Science. At the end of the introduction there's always a phrase that begins with something like, "here we show..." or "in this paper we show..." This text is part of a logical sequence of information, typically (but not necessarily) provided in this order:

Here's an example from a study by Cataldo et al. (2021) on the impact of social media on teenagers' lives.

Note how the research background, gap, rationale, and objectives logically blend into each other.

The authors chose to put the research aims before the rationale. This is not a problem though. They still achieve a logical sequence. This helps the reader follow their thinking and convinces them about their research's foundation.

Elements of a research rationale

We saw that the research rationale follows logically from the research background and literature review/observation and leads into your study's aims and objectives.

This might sound somewhat abstract. A helpful way to formulate a research rationale is to answer the question, “Why is this study necessary and important?”

Generally, that something has never been done before should not be your only motivation. Use it only If you can give the reader valid evidence why we should learn more about this specific phenomenon.

A well-written introduction covers three key elements:

• What's the background to the research?
• What has been done before (information relevant to this particular study, but NOT a literature review)?
• Research rationale

Now, let's see how you might answer the question.

1. This study complements scientific knowledge and understanding

Discuss the shortcomings of previous studies and explain how'll correct them. Your short review can identify:

• Methodological limitations . The methodology (research design, research approach or sampling) employed in previous works is somewhat flawed.

Example : Here , the authors claim that previous studies have failed to explore the role of apathy “as a predictor of functional decline in healthy older adults” (Burhan et al., 2021). At the same time, we know a lot about other age-related neuropsychiatric disorders, like depression.

Their study is necessary, then, “to increase our understanding of the cognitive, clinical, and neural correlates of apathy and deconstruct its underlying mechanisms.” (Burhan et al., 2021).

• Contextual limitations . External factors have changed and this has minimized or removed the relevance of previous research.

Example : You want to do an empirical study to evaluate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the number of tourists visiting Sicily. Previous studies might have measured tourism determinants in Sicily, but they preceded COVID-19.

• Conceptual limitations . Previous studies are too bound to a specific ideology or a theoretical framework.

Example : The work of English novelist E. M. Forster has been extensively researched for its social, political, and aesthetic dimensions. After the 1990s, younger scholars wanted to read his novels as an example of gay fiction. They justified the need to do so based on previous studies' reliance on homophobic ideology.

This kind of rationale is most common in basic/theoretical research.

2. This study can help solve a specific problem

Here, you base your rationale on a process that has a problem or is not satisfactory.

For example, patients complain about low-quality hospital care on weekends (staff shortages, inadequate attention, etc.). No one has looked into this (there is a lack of data). So, you explore if the reported problems are true and what can be done to address them. This is a knowledge gap.

Or you set out to explore a specific practice. You might want to study the pros and cons of several entry strategies into the Japanese food market.

It's vital to explain the problem in detail and stress the practical benefits of its solution. In the first example, the practical implications are recommendations to improve healthcare provision.

In the second example, the impact of your research is to inform the decision-making of businesses wanting to enter the Japanese food market.

This kind of rationale is more common in applied/practical research.

3. You're the best person to conduct this study

It's a bonus if you can show that you're uniquely positioned to deliver this study, especially if you're writing a funding proposal .

For an anthropologist wanting to explore gender norms in Ethiopia, this could be that they speak Amharic (Ethiopia's official language) and have already lived in the country for a few years (ethnographic experience).

Or if you want to conduct an interdisciplinary research project, consider partnering up with collaborators whose expertise complements your own. Scientists from different fields might bring different skills and a fresh perspective or have access to the latest tech and equipment. Teaming up with reputable collaborators justifies the need for a study by increasing its credibility and likely impact.

When is the research rationale written?

You can write your research rationale before, or after, conducting the study.

In the first case, when you might have a new research idea, and you're applying for funding to implement it.

Or you're preparing a call for papers for a journal special issue or a conference. Here , for instance, the authors seek to collect studies on the impact of apathy on age-related neuropsychiatric disorders.

In the second case, you have completed the study and are writing a research paper for publication. Looking back, you explain why you did the study in question and how it worked out.

Although the research rationale is part of the introduction, it's best to write it at the end. Stand back from your study and look at it in the big picture. At this point, it's easier to convince your reader why your study was both necessary and important.

How long should a research rationale be?

The length of the research rationale is not fixed. Ideally, this will be determined by the guidelines (of your journal, sponsor etc.).

The prestigious journal Nature , for instance, calls for articles to be no more than 6 or 8 pages, depending on the content. The introduction should be around 200 words, and, as mentioned, two to three sentences serve as a brief account of the background and rationale of the study, and come at the end of the introduction.

If you're not provided guidelines, consider these factors:

• Research document : In a thesis or book-length study, the research rationale will be longer than in a journal article. For example, the background and rationale of this book exploring the collective memory of World War I cover more than ten pages.
• Research question : Research into a new sub-field may call for a longer or more detailed justification than a study that plugs a gap in literature.

Which verb tenses to use in the research rationale?

It's best to use the present tense. Though in a research proposal, the research rationale is likely written in the future tense, as you're describing the intended or expected outcomes of the research project (the gaps it will fill, the problems it will solve).

Example of a research rationale

Research question : What are the teachers' perceptions of how a sense of European identity is developed and what underlies such perceptions?

Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology , 3(2), 77-101.

Burhan, A.M., Yang, J., & Inagawa, T. (2021). Impact of apathy on aging and age-related neuropsychiatric disorders. Research Topic. Frontiers in Psychiatry

Cataldo, I., Lepri, B., Neoh, M. J. Y., & Esposito, G. (2021). Social media usage and development of psychiatric disorders in childhood and adolescence: A review. Frontiers in Psychiatry , 11.

CiCe Jean Monnet Network (2017). Guidelines for citizenship education in school: Identities and European citizenship children's identity and citizenship in Europe.

Cohen, l, Manion, L., & Morrison, K. (2018). Research methods in education . Eighth edition. London: Routledge.

de Prat, R. C. (2013). Euroscepticism, Europhobia and Eurocriticism: The radical parties of the right and left “vis-à-vis” the European Union P.I.E-Peter Lang S.A., Éditions Scientifiques Internationales.

European Commission. (2017). Eurydice Brief: Citizenship education at school in Europe.

Polyakova, A., & Fligstein, N. (2016). Is European integration causing Europe to become more nationalist? Evidence from the 2007–9 financial crisis. Journal of European Public Policy , 23(1), 60-83.

Winter, J. (2014). Sites of Memory, Sites of Mourning: The Great War in European Cultural History . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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How to Write a Study Rationale

Last Updated: May 19, 2023 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Jake Adams and by wikiHow staff writer, Jennifer Mueller, JD . Jake Adams is an academic tutor and the owner of Simplifi EDU, a Santa Monica, California based online tutoring business offering learning resources and online tutors for academic subjects K-College, SAT & ACT prep, and college admissions applications. With over 14 years of professional tutoring experience, Jake is dedicated to providing his clients the very best online tutoring experience and access to a network of excellent undergraduate and graduate-level tutors from top colleges all over the nation. Jake holds a BS in International Business and Marketing from Pepperdine University. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 58,068 times.

A study rationale explains the reason for a study and the importance of its findings for a particular field. Commonly, you'll need to write a study rationale as part of a university course of study, although you may also need to write one as a professional researcher to apply for funding or other support. As a student, your study rationale also justifies how it fulfills the requirements for your degree program or course of study. Do research before you write your study rationale so that you can discuss the previous work your study builds on and explain its significance to your field. Thorough research is also important in the professional context because your rationale will likely become part of the contract if funding or support is approved. [1] X Research source

Describing What You Hope to Accomplish

• For example, suppose you want to study how working the night shift affects the academic performance of college students who are taking classes during the day. A narrow question would measure a specific impact based on a specific amount of hours worked.

• Justify the methodology you're using. If there's another methodology that might accomplish the same result, describe it and explain why your methodology is superior — perhaps because it's more efficient, takes less time, or uses fewer resources. For example, you might get more information out of personal interviews, but creating an online questionnaire is more cost-effective.
• Particularly if you're seeking funding or support, this section of your rationale will also include details about the cost of your study and the facilities or resources you'll need. [3] X Research source

Tip: A methodology that is more complex, difficult, or expensive requires more justification than one that is straightforward and simple.

• For example, if you're studying the effect of working the night shift on academic performance, you might hypothesize that working 4 or more nights a week lowers students' grade point averages by more than 1 point.

• Use action words, such as "quantify" or "establish," when writing your goals. For example, you might write that one goal of your study is to "quantify the degree to which working at night inhibits the academic performance of college students."
• If you are a professional researcher, your objectives may need to be more specific and concrete. The organization you submit your rationale to will have details about the requirements to apply for funding and other support. [5] X Research source

Explaining Your Study's Significance

• Going into extensive detail usually isn't necessary. Instead, highlight the findings of the most significant work in the field that addressed a similar question.
• Provide references so that your readers can examine the previous studies for themselves and compare them to your proposed study.

• Methodological limitations: Previous studies failed to measure the variables appropriately or used a research design that had problems or biases
• Contextual limitations: Previous studies aren't relevant because circumstances have changed regarding the variables measured
• Conceptual limitations: Previous studies are too tied up in a specific ideology or framework

• For example, if a previous study had been conducted to support a university's policy that full-time students were not permitted to work, you might argue that it was too tied up in that specific ideology and that this biased the results. You could then point out that your study is not intended to advance any particular policy.

Tip: If you have to defend or present your rationale to an advisor or team, try to anticipate the questions they might ask you and include the answers to as many of those questions as possible.

Including Academic Proposal Information

• As a student, you might emphasize your major and specific classes you've taken that give you particular knowledge about the subject of your study. If you've served as a research assistant on a study with a similar methodology or covering a similar research question, you might mention that as well.
• If you're a professional researcher, focus on the experience you have in a particular field as well as the studies you've done in the past. If you have done studies with a similar methodology that were important in your field, you might mention those as well.

Tip: If you don't have any particular credentials or experience that are relevant to your study, tell the readers of your rationale what drew you to this particular topic and how you became interested in it.

• For example, if you are planning to conduct the study as fulfillment of the research requirement for your degree program, you might discuss any specific guidelines for that research requirement and list how your study meets those criteria.

• In most programs, there will be specific wording for you to include in your rationale if you're submitting it for a certain number of credits. Your instructor or advisor can help make sure you've worded this appropriately.

Study Rationale Outline and Example

Expert Q&A

• This article presents an overview of how to write a study rationale. Check with your instructor or advisor for any specific requirements that apply to your particular project. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

You Might Also Like

• ↑ https://research.com/research/how-to-write-research-methodology
• ↑ https://ris.leeds.ac.uk/applying-for-funding/developing-your-proposal/resources-and-tips/key-questions-for-researchers/
• ↑ https://www.cwauthors.com/article/how-to-write-the-rationale-for-your-research
• ↑ http://www.writingcentre.uct.ac.za/sites/default/files/image_tool/images/167/Rationale.pdf
• ↑ https://www.niaid.nih.gov/grants-contracts/write-research-plan
• ↑ https://www.esc.edu/degree-planning-academic-review/degree-program/student-degree-planning-guide/rationale-essay-writing/writing-tips/

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How to Write the Rationale of the Study in Research (Examples)

What is the Rationale of the Study?

The rationale of the study is the justification for taking on a given study. It explains the reason the study was conducted or should be conducted. This means the study rationale should explain to the reader or examiner why the study is/was necessary. It is also sometimes called the “purpose” or “justification” of a study. While this is not difficult to grasp in itself, you might wonder how the rationale of the study is different from your research question or from the statement of the problem of your study, and how it fits into the rest of your thesis or research paper. 

The rationale of the study links the background of the study to your specific research question and justifies the need for the latter on the basis of the former. In brief, you first provide and discuss existing data on the topic, and then you tell the reader, based on the background evidence you just presented, where you identified gaps or issues and why you think it is important to address those. The problem statement, lastly, is the formulation of the specific research question you choose to investigate, following logically from your rationale, and the approach you are planning to use to do that.

Table of Contents:

How to write a rationale for a research paper , how do you justify the need for a research study.

• Study Rationale Example: Where Does It Go In Your Paper?

The basis for writing a research rationale is preliminary data or a clear description of an observation. If you are doing basic/theoretical research, then a literature review will help you identify gaps in current knowledge. In applied/practical research, you base your rationale on an existing issue with a certain process (e.g., vaccine proof registration) or practice (e.g., patient treatment) that is well documented and needs to be addressed. By presenting the reader with earlier evidence or observations, you can (and have to) convince them that you are not just repeating what other people have already done or said and that your ideas are not coming out of thin air. 

Once you have explained where you are coming from, you should justify the need for doing additional research–this is essentially the rationale of your study. Finally, when you have convinced the reader of the purpose of your work, you can end your introduction section with the statement of the problem of your research that contains clear aims and objectives and also briefly describes (and justifies) your methodological approach. 

When is the Rationale for Research Written?

The author can present the study rationale both before and after the research is conducted. 

• Before conducting research : The study rationale is a central component of the research proposal . It represents the plan of your work, constructed before the study is actually executed.
• Once research has been conducted : After the study is completed, the rationale is presented in a research article or  PhD dissertation  to explain why you focused on this specific research question. When writing the study rationale for this purpose, the author should link the rationale of the research to the aims and outcomes of the study.

What to Include in the Study Rationale

Although every study rationale is different and discusses different specific elements of a study’s method or approach, there are some elements that should be included to write a good rationale. Make sure to touch on the following:

• A summary of conclusions from your review of the relevant literature
• What is currently unknown (gaps in knowledge)
• Inconclusive or contested results  from previous studies on the same or similar topic
• The necessity to improve or build on previous research, such as to improve methodology or utilize newer techniques and/or technologies

There are different types of limitations that you can use to justify the need for your study. In applied/practical research, the justification for investigating something is always that an existing process/practice has a problem or is not satisfactory. Let’s say, for example, that people in a certain country/city/community commonly complain about hospital care on weekends (not enough staff, not enough attention, no decisions being made), but you looked into it and realized that nobody ever investigated whether these perceived problems are actually based on objective shortages/non-availabilities of care or whether the lower numbers of patients who are treated during weekends are commensurate with the provided services.

In this case, “lack of data” is your justification for digging deeper into the problem. Or, if it is obvious that there is a shortage of staff and provided services on weekends, you could decide to investigate which of the usual procedures are skipped during weekends as a result and what the negative consequences are. 

In basic/theoretical research, lack of knowledge is of course a common and accepted justification for additional research—but make sure that it is not your only motivation. “Nobody has ever done this” is only a convincing reason for a study if you explain to the reader why you think we should know more about this specific phenomenon. If there is earlier research but you think it has limitations, then those can usually be classified into “methodological”, “contextual”, and “conceptual” limitations. To identify such limitations, you can ask specific questions and let those questions guide you when you explain to the reader why your study was necessary:

Methodological limitations

• Did earlier studies try but failed to measure/identify a specific phenomenon?
• Was earlier research based on incorrect conceptualizations of variables?
• Were earlier studies based on questionable operationalizations of key concepts?
• Did earlier studies use questionable or inappropriate research designs?

Contextual limitations

• Have recent changes in the studied problem made previous studies irrelevant?
• Are you studying a new/particular context that previous findings do not apply to?

Conceptual limitations

• Do previous findings only make sense within a specific framework or ideology?

Study Rationale Examples

Let’s look at an example from one of our earlier articles on the statement of the problem to clarify how your rationale fits into your introduction section. This is a very short introduction for a practical research study on the challenges of online learning. Your introduction might be much longer (especially the context/background section), and this example does not contain any sources (which you will have to provide for all claims you make and all earlier studies you cite)—but please pay attention to how the background presentation , rationale, and problem statement blend into each other in a logical way so that the reader can follow and has no reason to question your motivation or the foundation of your research.

Background presentation

Since the beginning of the Covid pandemic, most educational institutions around the world have transitioned to a fully online study model, at least during peak times of infections and social distancing measures. This transition has not been easy and even two years into the pandemic, problems with online teaching and studying persist (reference needed) . 

While the increasing gap between those with access to technology and equipment and those without access has been determined to be one of the main challenges (reference needed) , others claim that online learning offers more opportunities for many students by breaking down barriers of location and distance (reference needed) .  

Rationale of the study

Since teachers and students cannot wait for circumstances to go back to normal, the measures that schools and universities have implemented during the last two years, their advantages and disadvantages, and the impact of those measures on students’ progress, satisfaction, and well-being need to be understood so that improvements can be made and demographics that have been left behind can receive the support they need as soon as possible.

Statement of the problem

To identify what changes in the learning environment were considered the most challenging and how those changes relate to a variety of student outcome measures, we conducted surveys and interviews among teachers and students at ten institutions of higher education in four different major cities, two in the US (New York and Chicago), one in South Korea (Seoul), and one in the UK (London). Responses were analyzed with a focus on different student demographics and how they might have been affected differently by the current situation.

How long is a study rationale?

In a research article bound for journal publication, your rationale should not be longer than a few sentences (no longer than one brief paragraph). A  dissertation or thesis  usually allows for a longer description; depending on the length and nature of your document, this could be up to a couple of paragraphs in length. A completely novel or unconventional approach might warrant a longer and more detailed justification than an approach that slightly deviates from well-established methods and approaches.

Consider Using Professional Academic Editing Services

Now that you know how to write the rationale of the study for a research proposal or paper, you should make use of Wordvice AI’s free AI Grammar Checker , or receive professional academic proofreading services from Wordvice, including research paper editing services and manuscript editing services to polish your submitted research documents.

You can also find many more articles, for example on writing the other parts of your research paper , on choosing a title , or on making sure you understand and adhere to the author instructions before you submit to a journal, on the Wordvice academic resources pages.

Collection: Writing your Rationale Essay

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Rationale Essay Overview

What is a rationale essay.

Rationale refers to reasons why . And that’s the purpose of the rationale essay, to explain the reasons why you've chosen the courses that are listed in your degree plan. You’ll need to provide different types of reasons--personal, academic, professional--in order to explain your choices for and structure of your degree.  Academic and professional "reasons why"  are supported by researched evidence that your courses meet the expectations of the college, the field of study, and the larger professional contexts in which you intend to use your degree. Think of the rationale essay, then, as a logical argument for the design of your degree. 

Why do I need to write it?

Two reasons:

• College Policy - A degree plan and its accompanying rationale essay are two products required of all ESC students, as part of the 4 credits of educational planning that ESC requires.
• College Practice - A college assessment committee, which approves degrees, needs to understand the reasoning behind your choices for your degree.  Your rationale essay provides your reasons and research, proving that you have a personally-useful and educationally-valid degree.

Who's going to read it?

Your degree plan and rationale essay will be reviewed by an assessment committee, made up of ESC faculty and professionals.  In order to approve your degree, they need to understand the context in which you're pursuing your degree (your background, goals, and plans), how you're addressing the ESC Area of Study Guidelines and SUNY General Education requirements, what relevant research you've done into academic and professional expectations for your degree, and how the components of your degree all fit together. 

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What goes into it?

ESC Policy states the following:

The rationale essay is the student’s explanation of the purposes, design and significance of her/his individual degree plan. It is likely that most students will develop their rationale early in their degree studies. Therefore, the rationale should be perceived as a planning (or prospective) document. In the rationale, each student:

• outlines her/his own educational and professional experience, goals, and learning needs,
• discusses how the proposed degree plan reflects her/his own background and purposes,
• discusses how the degree plan reflects the educational expectations of the college (i.e., SUNY general education requirements, level and breadth of learning, and integration and progression of learning),
• discusses how the student's learning reflects, or may depart from, the Empire State College Area of Study and concentration guidelines for the degree, and
• reflects the student's awareness of external professional expectations, where applicable.

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• Researching

How to write a research rationale

When you are doing a research assessment piece in History, you’ll often be asked to write a rationale. This is particularly true for the source investigation assessment piece.

What is a ‘rationale’?

A rationale is a written explanation about your research task that helps your teacher understand the decisions you made before beginning your source research .

A research rationale is a statement that explains the reasons behind conducting a particular research study.

It outlines the background, context, and significance of the research and why it is important to answer the main inquiry question.

A rationale seeks to answer three questions:

• Why have you chosen this particular topic to research?
• What questions do you specifically want answered as a result of your research?
• How do you plan on finding the best sources during your research?

How to write a rationale

Based upon the three questions mentioned above, your rationale should have three distinct sections that answer each one.

Please note that you can answer all three in a single paragraph, but the examples below will show them as three separate paragraphs.

Part 1: Explain your topic choice

You should explain as clearly as possible why this particular subject interested you.

Don’t just say “it is interesting”: give specific reasons why.

The more precise you are, the better your mark will be. 

Useful sentence starters for explaining topic choice:

• I was curious to discover…
• I wanted to know…
• I was confused by…
• I always wanted to know…
• I have always been fascinated by…
• I am particularly interested in…
• I was surprised to learn that … and I wanted to know more

Example explanation of topic choice:

Imperial Japan’s decision to surrender at the end of World War II seemed like a historical anomaly based upon what we learned in class about the Japanese ideologies behind bushido and the samurai. I wanted to know to what degree the atomic bombs had an influence upon the ultimate decision to surrender. I specifically want to know what the Japanese primary sources said at the time of the events to see their perspective. In particular, want to know if Emperor Hirohito left any documents that explained his decisions.  

Part 2: Explain your research questions

You need to explain the steps that helped you to create your Key Inquiry Question and Sub-Questions .

Remember that these questions should constantly be refined to include specific historical terms and information that you found during your background research .

Explain to your teacher why you have included specific information in your research questions.

Useful sentence starters for explaining research questions:

• The three specific aspects that I wanted to focus upon are…
• I knew that I had to develop my understanding of…
• My background research focused upon…

Example explanation of research questions:

Since I wanted to focus my research on the Japanese primary sources, my Key Inquiry Question is primarily about the role that the atomic bombs had upon the emperor’s decision to surrender at the end of World War II. I guess that there may not be a lot of primary sources written by the emperor himself, so I have formed three separate questions to look at his decisions from different angles. My first question focuses on what Japanese primary sources said at the time, including the emperor. My second question looks at how contemporary Japanese historians interpret this event. Finally, my third question seeks to understand how western historians understand Hirohito’s motivations.

Part 3: Explain how you will find your sources

You need to explain what strategies you have to help you find great sources to answer your research questions.

In this section, you want to specifically name the databases, museums or other research resources you know you will utilise to find the best sources on your topic.

It may also be useful to specifically name important historians or primary sources that you know in advance that you’ll need to read closely to help answer your questions.

Useful sentence starters for explaining source research:

• I have chosen to use…
• One of the best sources I found was…
• The most important sources I have use are…
• To ensure I had a range of perspectives I…
• It was important to include as one of my sources…

Example explanation of source research: 

I knew that finding Japanese primary sources was going to be hard, as I fear that many of them have not been translated into English. As a result, I am going to start my research by looking at what western historians say by gathering some academic articles from the JSTOR database. I hope that these historians will reference some translated Japanese primary sources and that will lead me to some great resources. After that, I know that the Tokyo Museum website has some primary source documents that may be of use to me, so look through their resources. Finally, during my background research, I stumbled across the prominent Japanese historian, Suzuki, who focuses a lot on this period, so I want to find out what his opinion is of these events. I believe that these resources should give me ample information to help answer my research questions.

Word limit advice

Answering all of these sections in a limited word count can be a challenge.

Therefore, don’t waste space on things that don’t matter, such as simply describing a historical event or person, or talking about simplistic decision-making choices (such as “I just really like wars”).

The rationale’s purpose is to explain your decision-making process. Therefore, if what you’re saying is not relevant, don’t waste space talking about it.

Example rationale

After learning about Ned Kelly in class, I was fascinated to discover that historians disagree about his motivations. What I wanted to learn about is the role that racist attitudes towards the Irish in colonial Australia had upon his life. I don’t know much about the social division between the English and Irish in Australian history, so I want to see how people who lived during these events described Ned Kelly, in order to see if racism was an important factor.

As a result, I have written my Key Inquiry Question to focus on the representation of Ned Kelly in the popular media. To help answer this, I have written my sub-questions to focus on different media types: my first question asks about how the newspapers reported on Kelly; my second is about how he is mentioned in religious sermons of the day; and my third question focuses on his representation in public posters, such as the ‘wanted’ signs for his arrest.

Since my questions are focused heavily on the primary sources, I know that I will have to start my source research on the Trove newspaper database website. This will allow me to quickly find newspaper reports about the main events in Kelly’s life. Secondly, I know that I will have trouble finding church sermons and public posters, so I will have to look for museum websites that may have these resources already, such as the Museum of Victoria and the State Library of New South Wales. I know that they often have educational resources for teachers that include primary sources. Finally, I know from my background research that Manning Clark has done a lot of research on Kelly’s life, so I hope he will mention important primary sources that can help me out, including the Jerilderie Letter.

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How to Write a Rationale

Kimberley mcgee, 10 aug 2018.

It is one of the most straight-forward things you can be assigned to write. It can also cause a lot of high anxiety if you have not written a rationale before or did and failed. A well-crafted rationale is a breakdown of a strategy, explanation or program you are running or intend to gather funds to breathe life into. It is more than an outline and less than a research paper. It is personal, impactful and concise. A good rationale will shore up your research paper or affirm your goals for business plans for investors.

Explore this article

• Rationale Definition in Simple Terms
• Why Write a Rationale?
• Tips on Writing a Great Rationale

1 Rationale Definition in Simple Terms

To find the simple rationale definition, you first must understand why you are writing a rationale. A rationale states the problem, defines key terms and notes objectives. It also clearly points to the importance of the subject, program or event. It lays out what you are attempting to establish, the point of what you intend to propose, how you will do it, and what needs to be completed in order for you to succeed.

It does all of this in a small amount of space in a concise manner. It may sound like a lot, but once you have sat down with your subject and know where you are going, a rationale is a breeze to begin and end. Begin with a thesis and end with a conclusion that can also include a call to action.

2 Why Write a Rationale?

A moving and impactful rationale is basically a set of reasons for a particular belief. When a student spends the time to sit down and write a rationale, the research paper, grant or other project that the rationale is based on will have a solid foundation to rely on. This makes for a much more effective overall paper, prospectus or project. The audience will believe the goal of the author if the rationale is well crafted and speaks to the intended audience in a way that makes them feel a call to action.

3 Tips on Writing a Great Rationale

Some of the best examples of well-done rationales recognized a lack in research or evidence in a specific area. Sample rationale statements include asking why a political movement is gaining ground or what is lacking in basic care for those living at or below the poverty line. Mention who the research within the rationale will be helping. Make sure the rationale truly supports the entire research paper. Define the scope of the rationale without making it so narrow that you risk alienating parts of your research.

• 1 NonProfit Pro: 5 Steps to a More Rational Rationale

About the Author

Kimberley McGee is an award-winning journalist with 20+ years of experience writing about education, jobs, business and more for The New York Times, Las Vegas Review-Journal, Today’s Parent and other publications. She graduated with a B.A. in Journalism from UNLV. Her full bio and clips can be seen at www.vegaswriter.com.

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Rationale, Essay Example

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Goal: to develop a program to tackle obesity in the ABC Elementary school.

Objectives:

• During the program design, change agents will detect the key contributors to the spread of obesity among ABC Elementary School’s children
• Upon the implementation of the anti-obesity program, pupils of the ABC Elementary school will be able to increase their awareness about healthy lifestyle, and will manage their weight much more proactively.

The problem of obesity has become the global public health concern within the past few decades. The report of National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES) (2012) indicated that “approximately 68 percent of adults are overweight or obese, with 75 million adult Americans considered obese”.  Moreover, the problem of children’s obesity is intensifying – within the past three decades, the number of children diagnosed with obesity between the age of 2 and 5 has doubled, and among children from 6 to 11 years old – has tripled (Why Obesity is a Health Problem, 2012).

The major threat of obesity is nowadays posed on children whose decision-making is not independent and informed enough to adopt healthy lifestyles and deter from obesity-causing behaviors. Hence, the attendees of elementary and primary schools are now the most vulnerable groups of population susceptible to obesity. The ABC Elementary School research indicated that the problem of obesity is quite acute in this establishment; hence, there is an urgent need to generate a comprehensive and balanced intervention to combat this public health issue.

There are a number of solutions to the problem of obesity in children; however, the majority thereof stems from their own decision to involve in responsible eating behaviors, and to adopt an active lifestyle. Hence, any intervention should start with an educational program – once children are educated on the key fundamentals of obesity, and find out the disastrous long-term consequences of this disorder, they are more likely to make decisions against unhealthy eating. The present rationale for the behavior change is connected with the TRA – Theory of Reasoned Action; the present theory states that once individuals form intent to do something, their future behavior will be conditioned by this intent. Hence, creating an awareness of the contributors to the obesity problem, as well as clarifying the ways to avoid it, is obviously a path to bringing a feasible change in attitudes and behaviors of ABC Elementary School’s attendees, which is further likely to bring about the mitigation of the obesity problem.

The information and enlightenment program intended for tackling obesity in the ABCD Elementary School possesses numerous benefits for the school, and for all stakeholders, i.e., educators, parents, students, and the school administration. The information will be delivered during scheduled sessions to all students, not only those diagnosed with obesity, which will help avoid the bias and stereotyping regarding obese children. Moreover, group workshops and informational sessions are likely to increase the TRA incentives for learners – the human behavior is conditioned by what other people they care about think about them, and how they treat their certain habits and behaviors. Hence, learners may be united by their inspiration to lead a healthy way of life, and to educate their peers, parents, and friends about what they found out at the anti-obesity classes.

The program promises to be successful, since it will delineate the best solutions for children on the way to avoiding obesity, but at the same time it will not compromise their regular lifestyle. Children will be taught to eat, drink, and have fun, but will be offered less fatty and healthier alternatives that will not make them refuse from their favorite dishes and activities. Moreover, learners will be offered variants for eating out, cooking food with parents, spending time outdoors with friends and family, which will increase their interest to the program, and will help them implement the recommendations in the real-life settings.

Why Obesity is a Health Problem (2012). National Heart Lung and Blood Institute . Retrieved from http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/public/heart/obesity/wecan/healthy-weight-basics/obesity.htm

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Tips for the Rationale Essay for Human Services Students

The rationale essay is the student’s explanation of the purposes, design and significance of her/his individual degree plan (from Policy statements, below). As listed below, there are several parts to the essay. Tips on how to include each of them in your essay are listed below:

• Outline your educational and professional experience, as well as explain what your goals are in earning a degree.  
• For example, where did you attend school before, what type of work did you do before coming to SUNY Empire, or why do you want your degree now?
• Students have discussed how they need a degree for a promotion, career change, to keep their current job, to serve as a role model for their children, or to fulfill a lifelong goal for themselves.
• Discuss how your proposed degree plan reflects your background.  
• For example, how does your degree meet your personal or professional needs?
• Students have discussed how and why this degree meets the requirements in their field.  For example, a student has worked at an organization for 10 years and wishes to become a supervisor, but needs a bachelor’s in human services to do so.
• For students who are changing careers or new to the workforce, many have looked at job postings and have noted that they needed a degree for the position. 
• Discuss how your degree plan reflects the educational expectations of the college (i.e., SUNY general educational requirements, level and breadth of learning and integration and progression of learning).
• Students need to discuss how they meet the general education requirements with the courses that they have taken.
• Many students mention how they earned credits toward general education requirements through their associate’s degree, as well as complete the remainder of the requirements at SUNY Empire.
• For breadth of learning, students have discussed how courses outside of human services benefit their learning. For example, how do courses in human development, the humanities, and/or sociology influence your learning?
• Discuss how your learning reflects the Empire State University area of study and concentration guidelines for the degree.
• For human service students, this means you will need to discuss how you meet each of the area of study guidelines in human services. These include: knowledge of human behavior, knowledge of service delivery, skills, ethics, diversity, and application and integration.
• Make sure to consult the university's area of study guidelines . Together with your mentor, you will decide which courses meet your interests and each of the guidelines. 
• What courses/prior learning do you have that meet knowledge of human behavior?  Students should briefly discuss how and why the course/prior learning meets the guideline.
• Some may find it helpful, when talking about how a course meets a guideline, to briefly discuss how it helps to expand their knowledge in working with a certain population or age group. 
• Reflect on your awareness of external professional expectations.
• Students have researched expectations for a job that they are interested in, entry requirements into graduate school, job prospects in their field, or consult professional membership organizations.

Further Tips

• You will work with your mentor to develop your rationale essay. Like any piece of good writing, you may need to do several drafts/revisions.
• The rationale essay accompanies your degree plan. The degree plan cannot be submitted for approval without the rationale essay. 
• The rationale essay is an important piece of writing and needs to meet university-level writing expectations in terms of substance, presentation and academic integrity. Since this is an essay, you should write a short conclusion to the rationale.
• The rationale is not an autobiography, nor is it a listing of degree components or courses.
• Rationale essays tend to vary in length depending on the complexity of the degree program.
• You may submit one rationale for an associate and a bachelor’s degree program designed at the same time as long as the essay discusses both degrees.
• If you have difficulty writing the rationale essay, meeting with a learning coach or seeking writing support is beneficial. The university's website has many academic resources that can also be helpful to you in this process.

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Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews

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Plato’s Second Republic: An Essay on the Laws

André Laks, Plato’s Second Republic: An Essay on the Laws , Princeton University Press, 2022, 278 pp., $35.00 (hbk), ISBN 978691233130.

Reviewed by Rachana Kamtekar, Cornell University

Plato’s Laws is a wide-ranging and complex work of political philosophy, and recognition of its significance has been on the rise in recent decades. Matching it in richness, range, and complexity, André Laks’s Plato’s Second Republic: An Essay on the Laws guides the reader through the Laws’ thinking on the work’s overarching concerns. Chapter 1 provides an initial roadmap to the Laws . Chapters 2–3 argue that the relationship of the Republic’s best city and the best city of the Laws to the constitution finally elaborated in the Laws is a relationship of paradigm to approximations of the paradigm. What is to be approximated is the divine rule of reason (as Laks translates nous ). It turns out that even very close approximations may not look very much like their paradigms so that, for example, the holist and particularist judgment of the political expert may be most closely approximated by the commands of exceptionless and changeless laws. Chapter 4 outlines the moral psychology that informs the Laws’ legislative proposals (including both the ‘constitutional law’ that sets up offices and institutions and the laws addressed to office-holders and others under the constitution), taking special account of the nature of pleasure, which human beings take in the familiar as well as in the ordered and fine. These pleasures determine both the limits to, and the potentiality for, human inculcation into virtue. Chapters 5–6 discuss the relationship between legislation’s aim of complete virtue and legislation’s various targets, such as freedom, friendship, and equality; and what it is to ‘mix’ and what is ‘mixed’ in constitutional design and why. Chapters 7–9 focus on the tension between the rational content of law and its tyrannical form (command followed by threat for noncompliance) and Plato’s innovation of legislative preambles to address this tension. Chapter 10 reflects on the sense in which the constitution described in the Laws itself is ‘the truest tragedy’: transgressions are followed by punishments, and legislative violence is unavoidable. Three appendices round out the book. Appendix A argues that the Statesman is transitional between the Republic and Laws as providing the ‘conceptual ground’ for what is ‘the all-things-considered consequence of an anthropological turn made possible by the logic of the paradigm itself’ (161). Appendix B argues that the main shift in Plato’s moral psychology between the Republic and the Laws is a cleaner break between the rational and the irrational in the latter compared to the former. Appendix C comments that Posidonius’ criticism that Plato’s institution of preambles is pointless, given that the command form of the law demands obedience, not understanding (reported in Seneca’s Letter 94), thus it ‘neglects the problem that Plato meant to solve. . . .For it is because law “orders and does not discuss” that Plato’s lawgiver must take on himself the “discussion” which the law is unable to conduct’ (179).

In what follows I will focus on only three of the items on this rich menu: (1) the moral psychology of the Laws and its implications for Laks’s thesis that the relationship of the constitution of Kallipolis in the Republic to the constitution of Magnesia in the Laws is one of paradigm to approximation; (2) the relationship in the Laws between the constitutional targets of freedom and equality, on the one hand, and legislation’s aim of citizen virtue, on the other; and (3) how the persuasion provided by preambles to the law relates to citizens’ reasoning.

To begin the discussion of moral psychology: the Laws’ main speaker, the Athenian, describes human beings as wind-up toys pulled by two kinds of cords, hard iron cords representing the passions and a golden cord representing calculation (Frede, 2010). The latter is divine, soft, and gentle rather than forceful, needing helpers to overcome the former kind when they pull against it (644e–45a). Chapter 4, “Human Nature” unpacks this metaphor and in light of it the program of education in the Laws . Unfortunately, Laks’s description of these motivations as ‘solitary and fragile’ and the primary passions and derivative psychic states as ‘taken collectively as hard as iron’ (67) overlooks the Athenian’s characterization of calculation’s pull as not only gentle but also soft ( malake ̄n , 645a3). Softness could represent not only calculation’s need for helpers, but also its flexibility, in being able to change direction easily, like gold, and might point towards its ability to recruit some of the hard iron cords against others, so that ultimately what we do is what calculation calculates we should do. The Athenian illustrates how the golden cord can win this tug of war: the public acceptance of law makes the prospect of violation arouse prospective shame ( aido ̄s ) in the would-be violator (646e–47d). So, for example, I may be tempted to cheat, but what keeps me from cheating is not only calculation (it’s bad for the community; I face the risk of detection and punishment) but also the painful prospect of my peers thinking less of me. [1] I can use this law-created resource in support of my reasoned conviction that I should not cheat. This is an example of how reason, although weak, can function as a clever manager of our other motivations, so that even though each of them (being iron) has a stronger pull than calculation does, when some of them pull against others and on calculation’s side, it can control what we do.

This missed opportunity notwithstanding, Chapter 4 gives a nicely balanced account of the role of pleasure in both our accordance with and contrariety to reason: we find pleasure in order on the one hand and in what is familiar-to-ourselves on the other. The human potential for near-divinity and gentleness on the one hand and wildness on the other is rooted in pleasure and pain’s being the more powerful motivators in our lives. Education must lead our capacity for pleasure-in-order to ever-higher pleasures and counter our tendency to find pleasure in the familiar, since at least some of what is familiar can be bad. Laks’s account grows vague when it comes to ‘the difficulties that await the program of translating the in-born pleasure for order to the extra-kinetic and extra-melodic sphere of linguistic statements and opinions, as the heterogeneity of pleasure and rational order progressively take precedent over the primitive hints at their association’ (71). Here Laks might have explored Laws 10’s identification of our different cognitive states with different kinds of motions (896e–97a).

In Appendix B Laks argues that, contrary to the argument of Christopher Bobonich’s (2002) Plato’s Utopia Recast , there is no major shift from a tripartite psychology of agent-like soul-parts in the Republic to a unitary soul possessing both the power of reasoning and irrational motivations in the Laws . Rather, the sentences in the Republic that suggest agent-like soul-parts are ‘metaphorical’ and seem to suggest that the soul-parts have independent powers of belief-formation only because they ‘represent’ classes of citizens (173); as a matter of psychological doctrine the soul of the Republic is no less unitary than the soul of the Laws. But this is too quick: the city-soul analogy is, like all analogies, limited, and the fact that the soul-parts ‘represent’ classes of citizens does not, for example, lead Plato to assign the appetitive part a productive function. So the question remains: why does he assign it beliefs? On the other hand, if soul-parts’ agent-likeness is ‘metaphorical’, rather than a side-effect of representing classes of citizens, then the reader is owed an account of the point of the metaphor.

Laks maintains that the difference in moral psychology between the Republic and the Laws has to do with a cleaner break between the rational and the nonrational in the latter: ‘In the Republic , the thumos is the ally of the logistikon , which it helps in controlling the appetitive part; in the Laws , the thumos is clearly used in the sense of ‘anger’ (hence the question about whether it is a part or a passion associated with fear), and it is against this relatively homogeneous whole that reasoning and its upshot (the belief about what is best) must impose itself’ (176).

But what is always on the side of reason in the Republic is not thumos (anger) but the thumoeides (literally something anger-like in form, often translated ‘spirited’). This non-inconsistency may be supplemented by a similarity: in the Republic the thumoeides part is responsible for shame or anger directed at oneself for failing to live up to one’s judgment of what one should do (439e–40b); in the Laws the species of fear that pulls on the side of the golden cord of calculation is prospective shame ( aido ̄s ). But how can the Athenian count on shame to pull on the side of calculation unless, like the Republic’s thumoeides , and for that matter the Phaedrus’ good horse, it is always on the side of judgment ( doxa )? Of course, one’s judgment might be formed either through calculation or through bodily pleasure/pain, and this is where both dialogues bring in the distinction between rational and irrational. The presence or absence of motivations that naturally follow doxa is no part of that distinction —after all the pleasures in order also do that, even on Laks’s own account.

The moral psychology of the Republic as compared to the Laws matters to Laks insofar as he wants to show that Plato need have had no radical change of mind about the corruptibility of human nature, emphasized in the Laws but not the Republic , because the relationship between the two dialogues is one of paradigm to approximation. Thus Laks takes the Athenian’s declaration that they are legislating for human beings, not gods and heroes, and that it’s not possible for a human being (setting aside gods and heroes) to combine political expertise and unaccountable power for a long time (46–47, Laks’s emphases) not as walking back the possibility of the Republic’s best city, but rather as complementing it. After all, the Republic only claims that if philosopher-rulers could come to be (which is not impossible), then the best city could be approximated, which Laks maintains, is a second ‘sense’ of ‘possible’, distinct from ‘could come to be’. Both dialogues can maintain that pleasure renders human beings corruptible so that the best city may at most be approximated when set up for human beings.

Attractive as the paradigm-approximation account is, one wonders: if the Republic’s best city is a paradigm that doesn’t yet take human nature into account, why is it necessary for it to impose restrictions on private property ownership for the guardians (416c–17b, 420a,421e–22a)? Why is it necessary to conceal biological relationships and the principles for determining marriages (459c–61e)?

Further, the alleged evidence for a second ‘sense’ of ‘possible’ in the Republic is Socrates’ saying, in Laks’s translation, ‘if we’re able to discover how a city could come to be governed in a way that most closely approximates our description, let’s say that we’ve found the things that you have ordered us to show are possible’ (473a5–b1) (39). Does ‘let’s say’ warrant a new ‘sense’ of ‘possible’? Why not just a relaxation of standards for Socrates’ demonstration that the city he’s described could come to be?

The second topic I will discuss is Laks’s account of how, if education aims to promote citizen virtue, this aim is related to the many targets of legislation mentioned in Laws 3, not only wisdom and temperance but also friendship and freedom. Freedom is especially puzzling because the Athenian says that Sparta achieved it as a result of power-sharing in its institutions (two kings and an ephorate representing the people) and the freedom it achieved thereby was freedom from domination by Persia. But how is this related to civic freedom? The Athenian switches from Sparta to Persia and Athens, which in their best moments represent the ‘duly measured’ constitution. In Persia, despotism was tempered by Darius allowing his generals to exercise some judgment; in Athens, freedom was tempered by respect for authority under the ancient constitution. Although Laks closes Chapter 5 with a lot of unanswered questions not only about the historical narrative in Laws 3 but also about the inclusion of freedom as a constitutional target in Laws 6, in Chapter 6, on mixture, he explains how the principles of monarchy and democracy are ‘blended’ via the institutions of the Laws’ constitution, and how freedom acquires its positive meaning (not just freedom from some master, derived from non-slave status, but also freedom in being reason-ruled since reason is something internal and hence servitude to it is voluntary) via the obligations and hence normative implications of the social status ‘free’.

This is interesting (if somewhat distant from the text), and I wondered about the relationship between ‘internal’, ‘voluntary’, and ‘free’. It is odd to think that an inclination’s being internal would be sufficient for acting on it to be voluntary—eros’s tyrannizing and forcing is only the most famous counterexample, but the Athenian also takes badness and injustice, which seem internal enough, to be involuntary (860d). Finally, the movement from an allegedly ‘negative’ freedom consisting in non-slave status, to an allegedly ‘positive’ freedom consisting in rule by reason, is questionable. From the fact that slaves were by definition not free and citizens were not slaves, it does not follow that the ‘sense’ of ‘free’ was ‘non-slave’.

Turning now to freedom and equality: Laks distinguishes these only as monadic and relational conditions of civic friendship. But does civic friendship require some compromise between freedom and authority, and so some kind of equality (perhaps because of the actual corruptibility of rulers with absolute power or the perceived/imagined concern of the ruled with exploitation by too-powerful rulers)? Perhaps, rather than differing as monadic and relational, freedom is a condition that demands recognition and equality a way of recognizing it (e.g., by lot vs. by proportional equality).

My final topic is Laks’s discussion of the institution of persuasive preambles to law by which Plato addresses the ‘tyrannical’ form of law (command accompanied by threat of sanction for violation). Laks finds this form to be ‘irrational and apolitical’ because of its use of ‘constraint and ‘violence’ ( bia )’ (107). But although Laks connects persuasion with a legitimate request from the ruled (117), it is never really clear what the preamble is supposed to persuade the listener of. Is it that he should obey the law? Or that the law is good (individually? collectively?) or just? Or that it expresses what he would want anyway? Is ‘anyway’ to be cashed out as ‘if he were fully rational’? Laks avoids some of these questions by characterizing the scholarly debate about whether the persuasion of the preambles is ‘rational’ or ‘irrational’ as ‘rather confused’ (125). Instead, he constructs a scale on which to place the various preambles, one extreme of which is philosophical dialogue or teaching (123), for example in Laws 10’s preamble to convince the atheist of the existence, care, and incorruptibility of the gods (146), and on the other extreme, threat of punishment reintroduced within the preamble itself, for example in the preambles to crimes of impiety like kin-killing and temple robbery (133–35).

But it is interesting that the threatening preambles contain not just threat (of afterlife punishment in addition to human punishment) but also another perspective on the wrongdoer—it is not he but an alien desire implanted in him that drives him to wrongdoing—and advice on how to act on this other perspective—he should betake himself to the shrines of curse-lifting gods and the company of good men (9.854a–c). Philosophical dialogue this is certainly not, but does it not alert the wrongdoer to the resources of his own reasoning, that golden cord that can enlist other motivations to its side?

This review has, as is the way of reviews, focused on disagreements and alternatives. But I should close by acknowledging that I’ve only scratched the surface of an unusually rich and thought-provoking book. Laks has engaged deeply with Plato’s Laws and his book deserves close and careful study.

Dorothea Frede, ‘Puppets on Strings, Moral Psychology in the Laws’ , pp. 108–26 in Bobonich (ed.) Plato’s Laws: A Critical Guide , Cambridge 2010.

Susan Sauvé Meyer, ‘Pleasure, Pain and “Anticipation” in Plato’s Laws , Book I’ pp. 311–28 in Presocratics and Plato: Festschrift in Honor of Charles Kahn , Patterson et al. (eds.) Parmenides Publishing 2012.

[1] I take this to be the view in Meyer (2012).