Symposia
Plato, the Erotic, and Moral Value
Description:... Socrates was wise, because he knew that he did not know anything; this has long been the prevailing wisdom of the Socratic-Platonic tradition. In Platos Middle Periodspanning dialogues such as Phaedo, Symposium, Republic, and PhaedrusSocrates consistently claims to have knowledge in one area: the erotic. This book argues that the underlining of erotic matters in what it refers to as Platos Erotic Periodmarks the most significant and dramatic moment in Platos career. Platos attention to the erotic in this period calls for a fundamental reassessment of many of the most important Platonic ideas: his complicated quarrel with poetry, his dubious doctrine of forms, his alleged hostility to the body and embodiment. In the Erotic Period, Platos views are much richer, and infinitely more complex, than the many caricatures of his thought allow.
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