plato

Question 1

definitions of love

Answer 1

in symposium
- phaedrus: love is the path to virtue, the oldest of the gods- homoerotic relations between erastes and eromenos, each is driven to do well for the state due to the other one
- pausanias: pandemian, erotic passion, common to all, and uranian is a nobler form which blossoms into friendship, shared virtue, knowledge, desire for mental enrichment (draws a distinction between uranian
and pederasty)
- eryximachus: doctor, love as a human manifestation of a universal phenomenon, can be seen in the heavens and throughout nature, produces harmony in many aspects of life
- aristophanes: soulmates divided- justifies all genders in love and explains feeling of deep contentment
- agathon: love is desired because it is beautiful- virtues of love as young, soft, sweetly scented, moderate, courageous and wise
- socrates: diotima the priestess encourages Socrates, though questions, to see love not as ugly or attractive, divine or mortal, but a middle ground- the child of poverty and resource, so
- has elements of both, motivating one to seek what is beautiful over physical desire. necessary for true goodness. beauty of truth and goodness, pursuit of truth- philosophy
- alcibiades: socrates is love, he is knowledge and virtue

Question 2

physical symptoms of desire

Answer 2

In Phaedrus: Socrates- sexual desire urges the soul to grow wings and take flight, describes the body becoming warm, moist, swelling, shuddering, using metaphor of a bird ‘the whole soul
throbs and palpitates’
In Charmides: Socrates- ‘hot and bothered’ looking under the cloak of Charmides, a beautiful young boy, ‘on fire’
In Symposium: Alcibiades’ desire for Socrates is like being bitten by a snake

Question 3

difference between love and desire

Answer 3

In Symposium:
- Pausanias: the motivations for acts of sexual desire determine if it is beautiful or ugly. a relationship should last and develop into mutual love and respect
following the initial satisfaction of desire. morally right to respect gratification in return for virtue (he is an Erastus himself)
- Aristophanes: love is a better reason/ more likely explanation for people forming lifelong partnerships than sexual desire. sex is important for procreation but also helpful to
help people relax and enable them to focus on other things.
In Laws:
- difference between friendship, desire and love. friendship is affection for someone with whom we have something in common, desire is specifically sexual and physical,
love is first an intense feeling of friendship, then is divided into love which allows desire to be a part of it and love which cannot

Question 4

how and why desire should be controlled

Answer 4

Republic:
- effect that behaviour can have on the state- it is in everybody’s interests for society to be moderate and well controlled
- compares sex with desire for food- importance of being able to control yourself
- immoderate love compared to the behaviour of a dangerous, extreme tyrant
- everyone experiences desire in our dreams but our rational selves can control these desire when we wake
- dangers of incest
Phaedo:
- socrates’ last dialogue with friends before his death, the true philosopher rises above his desires and uses reason alone to inform his actions
- desire compared to nails hammered into the soul
Symposium:
- Eryximachus: should restrain unhealthy desire for unhealthy love, as for unhealthy food
- disease and desire- disease was a disaster for a city in the ancient world, as was immoderate desire
- Socrates: incorrect desire like incest

Question 5

how and why desire can be resisted

Answer 5

Symposium:
- alcibiades explains socrates’ restraint by comparing it to endurance on military campaigns- socrates had been able to go without rations and had also walked barefoot over ice
- socrates’ denial of hum makes him more desirable to alcibiades
- diotima: desire as the creative search for immortality, either through procreation or ‘mental pregnancy’ which can result in laws, ideas or works of art
Laws and Republic:
- desire should only be aimed at what is good
- sexual desire being rechannelled into more worthwhile aims for the good of the state
- concern expressed that if society is relaxed to the extent that men and women can spend more time together, there would need to be determined surveillance of the young
to stop them from constantly seeking to fulfil their mutual sexual desires (Laws)
Phaedrus:
- Socrates compares the soul to two horses- black horse is instinctive desire and white horse is moderation.
a charioteer has the job of steering horses who would naturally oppose each other

Question 6

homoerotic relationships

Answer 6

Symposium:
- Pausanias, erixymachus, phaedrus, alcibiades all suggest that same sex pederastic relationships could be useful to the state, a way for the older male generation to pass
down their knowledge and virtue
- pausanias and erixymachus take time to justify the sexual gratification an erases would receive from his eromenos
- diotima suggests to socrates that homoerotic relationships produce ideas and virtue and that this bond is stronger than the bond which produces children
- aristophanes’ explanation shows gay relations as natural. even argues that males in such relations are braver, more manly and courageous, than those is heterosexual ones-
more usual for an erastes/eromenos pair to last only until the eromenos reached adulthood
Lysis:
- considers the differences between friendship and love between men and which should come first (in phaedrus, it is suggested that friendship should come before a sexual relationship.
in symposium pausanias expresses importance of finding the right partner, although he acknowledges how difficult this is)
Laws:
- describes homoerotic relations are unnatural, and arise out of a failure to control desire