PLATO SCHOLARS

Question 1

‘Proper love is all about

Answer 1

self-control.’ – Goldhill

Question 2

‘Socrates takes on a female alter-ego

Answer 2

because women were considered the experts on reciprocity and procreation.’ – Halperin

Question 3

The nature of the symposia

Answer 3

‘reflects the male-dominated character of Greek social life.’ – Gill

Question 4

‘Socrates does not appear to be interested

Answer 4

in the ‘rights’ of women: his concern is to harness the potential of women for the overall good of the state.’ – Hobbs

Question 5

‘Plato clearly distinguishes between two types of love

Answer 5

the base lust and the advanced love of the soul and the mind.’ – Burton

Question 6

‘The overarching statement is

Answer 6

that love is powerful. It can lead us to truth or delude us with beauty.’ – Waterfield

Question 7

‘We may be attracted towards beauty

Answer 7

but our real goal is happiness.’ – Waterfield

Question 8

‘This is the love

Answer 8

that enslaves us.’ (sex stopping ascension to the forms) – Waterfield

Question 9

‘Plato believed the abolition

Answer 9

of the family would improve the cohesion of society as a whole.’ – Brown

Question 10

‘Love is a potent force

Answer 10

for moral behaviour.’ (Phaedrus’ speech) – Waterfield

Question 11

‘Happiness is the

Answer 11

true goal of eros.’ – Sheffield

Question 12

‘Love is not of the beautiful

Answer 12

but of creation/reproduction in the beautiful.’ – Sheffield

Question 13

the goal of the ladder

Answer 13

is to find ultimate beauty
- Sheffield

Question 14

Plato and Ovid agree that love is

Answer 14

a cultural construct but Ovid says sex is a natural thing
- Volk

Question 15

Plato doesn’t have a

Answer 15

comprehensive theory of love.
an account of what love can do for philosophy rather than an account of love for its own sake.
- Ferrari

Question 16

Plato emphasises more love’s

Answer 16

relationship to the practice of philosophy, the search for happiness and the contemplation of truth
- Burton

Question 17

Plato’s concept of friendship

Answer 17

is political; he would only be friends with those who were a benefit to him.
- Von Heyking

Question 18

Lovers are themselves,

Answer 18

supremely beautiful and good in every way.
- Sheffield

Question 19

heavenly love

Answer 19

of an older male for a younger male focuses on the younger male’s spiritual development
- Hobbs

Question 20

eros is a connecting force

Answer 20

between love and religion. Diotima is the focal point of this.
- Hobbs

Question 21

Plato included Alcibiades’ speech

Answer 21

to showcase Socrates’ theory of sexual restraint in practice.
- Scott

Question 22

no one suggests that

Answer 22

eros without lust is nonsensical
consider distinction between earthly attraction to body and the more transcendent love for personality and soul but never seem to think that eros requires a sexual component
- Davidson

Question 23

Socrates worries about women disrupting

Answer 23

philosophy - makes female entertainer leave
a woman ‘endangers speech and the philosopher occasion, the ecstatic contemplation of pederastic love’
- DuBois

Question 24

Aristophanes does not elaborate

Answer 24

on women’s erotic life with other women
- DuBois

Question 25

the philosopher represents the woman’s

Answer 25

wisdom, incorporates and appropriates it, then allows her to return subdues and dominated by philosophical truth
- DuBois

Question 26

Plato elsewhere rejects the idea

Answer 26

that the only sexual intercourse that should be permitted is procreative, for he has Socrates say in the Republic that couples who are past their fertile years may have sexual relations more or less as they please
- Provencal

Question 27

Republic is a test that allows public

Answer 27

life to overpower and annihilate all that Sappho deems important
creates a world where the kind of erotic connection described by Sappho seems impossible because it must always be reduced to a project of self-improvement and social welfare
- DuBois

Question 28

Sappho would have no

Answer 28

place in his ideal republic
- DuBois

Question 29

Plato’s dialogues are the persistent

Answer 29

exclusion of women from philosophical pleasure and labour
- DuBois