plato Flashcards
what is the tripartite soul?
plato believed a person’s soul could be dominated by any of: appetite (food,drink and sex), spirit (honour), reason
what main athenian ideas does plato attack in the republic?
plato attacks the idea of athenian democracy, the family in the broad sense of the oikos (household unit)
what would plato’s main solution to an athenian oikos look like?
separating society into producers, guardians and philosophers
what are plato’s views on a woman in the republic
“if women are expected to do the same work as men, we must teach them the same things”
what does plato say about women in the Timaios
“all those creatures generated as men who proved themselves cowardly and spent their lives in wrong doing were transformed in their second incarnation into women
why is the household unit seen as unjust in plato’s eyes?
household unit -> private family loyalties -> families in competition with other families -> conflict in society both in and outside of the city -> socioeconomic inequality -> unjust
what is agathon’s role?
tragic poet and Pausanius’ eromenos
what is aristophanes’ role?
comic poet
what is eryximachus’ role?
doctor
what is Pausanius’ role?
erastes of Agathon and a legal expert
what is Phaedrus’ role?
eromenos
what is Alcibiades’ role?
Military general
what is Aristophanes idea about love?
originally two people merged into one and then gods split them in half -> always looking for other half
what are Agathon’s two main ideas about love?
object of love is beauty
love creates jutice, moderation, courage and wisdom
what are Phaedrus’ idea about love?
if you love a virtuous man it encourages you to behave as you will fear to dissapoint the man
what is Pausanius’ main ideas about love?
splits love into two types, Pandemian (common) and Uranian (celestial). Uranian is preferred as it leads to mental enrichment. love blossoms into friendship and shared virtue and knowledge» bodily desires
what is Eryximachus’ main ideas about love?
love affects everything in universe & should be protected but there are 2 types of love (healthy and unhealthy). Capavle of curing disease and refers to theory of humours
what is Diotima’s ladder of love from bottom to top?
lust -> physical beauty -> beauty of people’s activities -> beauty of intellectual -> endeavour of insitution and morality -> true form of beauty
who follows Diotima ladder?
Socrates when he sleeps next to Alcibiades but does not advance on him. S. chases beauty but also refrains from sexual desires
how does Plato use language similar to male arousal to describe the soul’s reaction to desire in Phaedrus?
‘shudders at first’ ‘ sweat and unwonted heat’ ‘effluence moistens the germ of the feathers’ ‘swell and begin to grow’ ‘soul throbs and palpitates’
how does Plato convey love does not need overbearing physical desire?
‘holding in subjection that which causes evil in the soul’
how does Plato suggest society should run families in the republic?
all these women are to belong in common to all the men, that none are to live privately with any man
in Phaedrus how does Plato make it aware that total abstinence is not possible for society
‘but shall live a happy life in the light as they journey together’
how does Aristophanes view homoerotic relationships in the story of spheres
gives a speech on how homoerotic relationships are unnatural and immoral. relationships should be long lasting but pederastic relationships are not everlasting
