Core Question: How does Love open our eyes to an Ideal Way of Living?
From Mythos to Logos
Platos Symposium Logos through Mythos
Ancient Greek philosophers Socrates, Plato, Aristotle
Socrates (469-399 B.C.E.)
Born in Athens, father Sophroniskos, a scruptor and mother Phainarete, probably a midwife Married with Xanthippe and had three sons Took part in the Peloponnesian War as heavy-armed foot-soldier (hoplite) Held several public offices, refused to execute the order of the Thirty Tyrants to arrest a political opponent
Main occupation: discussed virtues, knowledge and other things with people at the market (agora) Condemned to death in Athens, refused to go into exile and died in prison
According to the oracle of Delphi, Socrates was the wisest man.
Plato Apology, 21a
Why is Socrates the wisest man?
I am wiser than this man; it is likely that neither of us knows anything worthwhile, but he thinks he knows something when he does not, whereas when I do not know, I do not think I know; so I am likely to be wiser than he to this small extent, that I do not think I know what I do not know. Plato Apology, 21d
Know thyself (gnthi seauton) inscribed in the
forecourt of the Temple of Apollon at Delphi
The Socratic method
The Elenchos (refutation)
The interlocutor is asked to make clear his viewpoint He will discover that his viewpoint (or definition) is too narrow or self-contradictory (aporia) Inconsistency of speakinginconsistency of thinking He is forced to re-examine the viewpoints he has taken for granted
for the unexamined life is not worth living for men
Plato, Apology 38a
The method of Maieutics (midwifery) The positive side of the Platonic method Through question and answer the interlocutor is invited to rethink his viewpoint and is thus led to a deeper and clearer understanding of it. He is guided to grasp the correct viewpoint which was latent in him.
Plato (428/427-348/347 B.C.)
Born in Athens, both his father Ariston and his mother Perictione came from prominent families Became Socrates follower at about 20 Refused to join the regime of the Thirty Tyrants
Refused to participate in the Athenian democracy after its re-establishment
Traveled to Megara (Greece), Cyrene (Libya), Sicily (Italy) and maybe even to Egypt Founded the Academy in the northwestern outskirt of Athens at the age of 40 (387 B.C.)
Stephanos pagination Page 142
Henricus Stephanus (Henri Estienne) Plato edition 1578 142a
142b 142c 142d
a symposium
Symposium symposion syn together posis drinking, drink
a symposium a drinking party, an enlightened conversation
A fresco taken from the north wall of the Tomb of the Diver showing the image of a symposium
Anselm Feuerbach, Platos Symposium (1869)
Six speakers, six eulogies of Eros
Phaedrus Pausanias Eryximachus Aristophanes Agathon Socrates and an interloper
Pederasty in ancient Greece
paiderastia pais = kid, boy erasts = lover
The beloved (the boy): younger, must avoid overready compliance
Lover: older, maybe married, supposed to be the intellectual and ethical teacher of the beloved
Phaedrus I can see nothing better in life for a young boy, as soon as he is old enough, than finding a good lover (erasts), nor for a lover finding a boyfriend (paidika). Plato, Symposium 178c
Pausanias
The Eros associated with Common Aprodite is, in all sense of the word, common For as start, he is as likely to fall in love with women as with boys. Secondly, he falls in love with their bodies rather than their minds. Thirdly, picks the most unintelligent people he can find, since all hes interested in is the sexual act. Symposium, 181ab
How about the heavenly Eros?
Eryximachus
But I cannot accept his implication that Eros is found only in human hearts, and is aroused only by human beauty. I am a doctor by profession that Eros is aroused by many other things as well, and that he is found also in nature in the physical life of all animals
So great and widespread in fact, universal is the power possessed, in general by all Eros Symposium, 186a and 188d
Aristophanes
Our original nature was not as it is now, but quite different. For one thing there are three sexes, rather than two Secondly, each human being formed a complete whole So he [Zeus] started cutting them into two Each of us is a mere fragment of a man (like half a tally-stick); weve been splite in two Were all looking for our other half Symposium, 189de and 191d
How about Socrates?
Then suddenly he will see a beauty of a breathtaking nature It is eternal, neither coming to be nor passing away, neither increasing nor decreasing. Moreover it is not beauty in part, and ugly in part, nor is it beautiful at one time, and not at another; nor beautiful in some respects, but not in others; nor beautiful here and not ugly there, as if beautiful in some peoples eye, but not in others. It will not appear to him as the beauty of face, or hands, or anything physical Plato, Symposium 210e-211a
Platos Two-World Theory
The Ideas the Beauty itself, intelligible, changeless, eternal, objects of knowledge Worldly things numerous beautiful things, sensible, always in change, perishable
Immortality, beauty and the pursuit of wisdom
Symposium, 206a-209e Human beings want to be everlasting and immortal
They try to achieve immortality by means of
reproduction There are two forms of reproduction, physical and
mental Mental reproduction is higher than physical one Reproduction, both physical and mental, needs some
beautiful medium The highest form of mental reproduction is the
attainment of wisdom, i.e. the knowledge of ideas
Climbing up to the ideas Platos ladder of love
Symposium, 210a f.
Beauty itself = the idea of beauty Beauty in knowledges/sciences Beauty in customs and institutions Beauty in mind/character Physical beauty in general
Physical beauty of individuals
Eros ist Love of physical beauty Love of beauty in character
Universal force of harmony
Finding the other self of us
Pursuing the eternal, absolute beauty itself
and more
Socrates image
The person Socrates
The speech of Alcibiades
The opening scenes the conversation between Apollodorus and his friend and the account of Aristodemus (172a-175e)
Alcibiades: I think hes very like one of those Silenus-figures sculptors have on their shelves You can open them up, and when you do you find little figures of the gods inside. I also think Socrates is like the satyr Marsyas You may not play the pipes, like Marsyas, but what you do is much more amazing Symposium, 215bc
Drunken Silenus 2nd c. B.C.E.
King Midas asked him: What is the best thing for a man? Silenos answered
But what you do is much more amazing
Plato, Symposium 215c
Marsyas
Alcibiades Athenian orator, politican and general (450-404 B.C.E.) 415 B.C.E. defects to Sparta, advising Spartans on how to defeat Athens in Peloponnesian War Around 412 B.C.E. falling out of favour, defects to Persia 407 B.C.E. temporarily returns to Athens 404 B.C.E. murdered
He [Socrates] seduces them, like a lover seducing his boyfriend, and then it turns out hes not their lover at all; in fact, theyre his lovers. Alcibiades in Symposium, 222b
What kind of lover is Socrates?
What is meant by philosopher, a lover of wisdom?
1.
What are the aspects of love (purpose, feature, function or nature of love) introduced in the speeches of Phaedrus and Pausanias? Put any one of them in the perspective of the ladder of love. nature of love) introduced in the speeches of Eryximachus and Agathon? Put any one of them in the perspective of the ladder of love. nature of Eros, why is reproduction important? What are the levels of ladder and according to the text, how can a person climb up to the top)? (201d-212c) (2 Groups) Socrates a good lover? Is Socrates a lover? What is the relationship between the image of Eros and that of Socrates?
2. What are the aspects of love (purpose, feature, function or
3. Examine Diotimas speech, as told by Socrates (What is
4. How do Socrates and Alcibiades describe each other. Is
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