Cheat sheet for Plato's ideals on love (including desire and homoeroticism) with a focus on his symposium which includes the ideas of Pausanias, Aristophanes, Agathon, Socrates/Diotima and Pheadrus. It also covers the tripartite soul, the forms, controlling and resisting desire and Plato's republi...
The Tripartite soul
red man = logos - reason (wisdom)
white horse = thumos - spirit (honour)
black horse = eros - appetite (food, drink, sex)
Loss of control battling with good emotions,
reason is in control, when all 3 are equal you
reach wisdom (reason)
The forms
Form of :
- Good
- Beauty
- Justice
Relationship between Soul and Forms
The Forms
you need to understand somethings to be able to unlock its form
Good at philosophy = wings → vgo to the world of the forms
Phaedrus
- In the beginning, our souls spotted the form before crashing and falling down to
earth
- they have a latent memory of the forms that we have to nurture and develop
through philosophical discussion
- by discussing the nature of justice, we come closer to recollecting all the forms
- once we recollect and remind what true virtues are the souls will be happy
- you have to recollect all forms to achieve this end goal
Phaedrus and Diotima both show that desire is necessary to help us reach the world of
the forms, but that it must be controlled so that it doesn’t take over.
, Plato's symposium
Phaedrus - Love is the path to virtue
- Virtue is the most important thing
- References pederasty (love makes the state better)
- An army of homoerotic men could ‘conquer the whole world’
Pausanius He believes there is 2 loves
- common Pandenemian eros
- body rather than soul
- for women and boys
- bad
- heavenly Uranian eros
- desire for mental enrichment
- love which blossoms into friendship and shared virtue and
knowledge (pederasty)
- between 2 men ‘wholly male’ = good
Eryximachus, the - Love is natural/ everywhere
doctor - universal phenomenon , can be seen throughout nature
- live is the source of all are happiness and harmony
- can’t be happy without love
- views love as a very positive
Aristophanes, the - love is the best friend of man
comic poet - can cure anything
- had to find the other half, everyone has a soulmate
- says homosexuality is just as natural as hetrosexuality, determined before
you are born
- ‘Its impossible to describe the affection, warmth and love they feel for each
other’
Agathon, the tragic god of love is the fairest and the best
poet - he is younger and tender
- love is soft , sweet just and wise
- love is nice and everyone should look for it
- love is desired for its beauty and that's why everyone wants it
Socrates, the - love is neither good or bad
philosopher - love is neither mortal or immortal but instead a spirit (works as the
middleman between gods and humans)
- pregnant in body and soul (1. in body = baby 2. Soul = virtue) ‘mentally
pregnant’
(Diotima's speech)
- Love is the child that Poverty conceived by Resource
- Love is poor but tough , always in a state of need but can get what he wants
- ‘love is the desire to have the good forever’
- ‘the object of love is not beauty, but reproduction in birth and beauty; - this is
the closest we can get to immortality
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