The phrase “as you yourself allowed,” made me suspect that this may have been addressed earlier. During the outage, I began to search the earlier books to see if Plato had already argued that persuasion is better than punishment. I didn’t have to look far. There may be more pertinent passages later, but the following from Laws I, 627e–628a seems apt enough.
Athenian: But I suppose we should also mention the judge who is third in respect to virtue—if there should ever be such a judge—one capable of taking over a single divided family and destroying no one, but rather reconciling them by laying down laws for them for the rest of time and thus securing their friendship for one another.
Cleinias: Such a judge and lawgiver would be better by far.
Thanks very much for looking that up and saving me the trouble, Tom!
Reply to “Laws X, 885c–885e: On what grounds would the imagined atheists demand that “persuasion be used on us first”?”