Open AccessB.3. The Platonic sage in love
Author(s) -
John Dillon
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
studia humaniora tartuensia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1406-6203
DOI - 10.12697/sht.2003.4.b.3
Subject(s) - mythology , philosophy , impulse (physics) , epistemology , set (abstract data type) , literature , theology , computer science , physics , art , quantum mechanics , programming language
This article explores the nature of the erotic impulse set forth in Diotima's speech in Plato's Symposium, and in the myth of the Phaedrus, with a view to deciding how far Plato intends it to be a purely selfish process. After all, in the 'ladder of ascent' to the Beautiful Itself in Symp. 210-12, the individual beloved seems to be left behind, and even disdained, and Plato has been criticised for this, by such authorities as Gregory Vlastos. I argue that this cannot really have been Plato's intention, and adduce the later Platonist discussion about the proper form that a philosophic love-affair should take.