PLATO SCHOLARS Flashcards
‘Proper love is all about
self-control.’ – Goldhill
‘Socrates takes on a female alter-ego
because women were considered the experts on reciprocity and procreation.’ – Halperin
The nature of the symposia
‘reflects the male-dominated character of Greek social life.’ – Gill
‘Socrates does not appear to be interested
in the ‘rights’ of women: his concern is to harness the potential of women for the overall good of the state.’ – Hobbs
‘Plato clearly distinguishes between two types of love
the base lust and the advanced love of the soul and the mind.’ – Burton
‘The overarching statement is
that love is powerful. It can lead us to truth or delude us with beauty.’ – Waterfield
‘We may be attracted towards beauty
but our real goal is happiness.’ – Waterfield
‘This is the love
that enslaves us.’ (sex stopping ascension to the forms) – Waterfield
‘Plato believed the abolition
of the family would improve the cohesion of society as a whole.’ – Brown
‘Love is a potent force
for moral behaviour.’ (Phaedrus’ speech) – Waterfield
‘Happiness is the
true goal of eros.’ – Sheffield
‘Love is not of the beautiful
but of creation/reproduction in the beautiful.’ – Sheffield
the goal of the ladder
is to find ultimate beauty
- Sheffield
Plato and Ovid agree that love is
a cultural construct but Ovid says sex is a natural thing
- Volk
Plato doesn’t have a
comprehensive theory of love.
an account of what love can do for philosophy rather than an account of love for its own sake.
- Ferrari
Plato emphasises more love’s
relationship to the practice of philosophy, the search for happiness and the contemplation of truth
- Burton
Plato’s concept of friendship
is political; he would only be friends with those who were a benefit to him.
- Von Heyking
Lovers are themselves,
supremely beautiful and good in every way.
- Sheffield
heavenly love
of an older male for a younger male focuses on the younger male’s spiritual development
- Hobbs
eros is a connecting force
between love and religion. Diotima is the focal point of this.
- Hobbs
Plato included Alcibiades’ speech
to showcase Socrates’ theory of sexual restraint in practice.
- Scott
no one suggests that
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
Socrates worries about women disrupting
philosophy - makes female entertainer leave
a woman ‘endangers speech and the philosopher occasion, the ecstatic contemplation of pederastic love’
- DuBois
Aristophanes does not elaborate
on women’s erotic life with other women
- DuBois
the philosopher represents the woman’s
wisdom, incorporates and appropriates it, then allows her to return subdues and dominated by philosophical truth
- DuBois
Plato elsewhere rejects the idea
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
Republic is a test that allows public
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
Sappho would have no
place in his ideal republic
- DuBois
Plato’s dialogues are the persistent
exclusion of women from philosophical pleasure and labour
- DuBois
