Plato (429-347 B.C.E.)Recall Singer’s

estimation of Plato’s importancePlato is where we must

begin our study (see p. 7).

Plato’s doctrine is “the most fertile and powerful single body of thought about love that anyone has ever created throughout Western civilization” (12).

Reading PlatoPlato is complex and

open to multiple interpretations. (Cf. xii)

The works we’ll be reading are from the Middle Period: Symposium, Phaedrus, Republic.

Laws is a later work.

“Love” in Ancient AthensEros: erotic, sexual love based on physical

attraction, closer to passionate and romantic love

Philia: friendship, “brotherly love,” love based on kinship or a common interest, not sexual attraction, also “love” of wisdom, related to virtue

Consider Socrates’ philosophy“my whole care is to commit no unjust or impious

deed” (Apology 32d)“no human being should do injustice in return or do

evil, whatever he suffers from others” (Crito 49c) Still, Philô se is used to say “I love you” to

one’s sexual partner, so the distinction isn’t absolute.

More Greek Words for Love

Agape: term used for love in New Testament, unconditional love of God for humans and humans for “neighbors,” charity

Storge: familial love, affection

Sex in Ancient AthensA historical context in Singer (28)Paid-erasteia (pederasty: love of boys)

“socially regulated intercourse between an older Athenian male (erastês) and a teenage boy(erômenos, pais), through which the latter was supposed to learn virtue” (xxi).

A rite of passage from a warrior past?Compare the term “pedophilia” (1906, sexual

perversion in which children are the preferred sexual object)

A “normal” sex life for an upper-class male included being a passive boyfriend in adolescence, the active, instructive male in adulthood, and also a married man with other women.

Symposium: IntroductionPlato’s best known work?Sym-posium literally means “drinking together,” but

note that most of the participants have a hangover, and Eryximachus, the doctor, shares some “accurate information as to the nature of intoxication” (176d)

So they choose to focus on discussion, not drinking.The subject of discussion: the seldom praised god of

love (Erôs)When did this gathering take place and what was the

occasion?416 BCE, “When we were still children, when Agathon

won the prize with his first tragedy” (173a) Apollodorus, Socrates’ emotional friend, relates the

details of this event as related by Aristodemus, while also suggesting that only philosophical discourse is meaningful (173c)

Symposium: An Outline Introductory Dialogue At Agathon’s: Socrates’ idiosycracies and irony (175e & 177e)

The art of love = the art of asking questions (see xix) The Speech of Phaedrus: “the father of the subject,” an erômenos

(student) The Speech of Pausanias: a legal expert, an erastês (teacher) The Speech of Eryximachus: a doctor The Speech of Aristophanes: a comic poet The Speech of Agathon: “Goodman,” a tragic poet Socrates Questions Agathon Diotima Questions Socrates (the speech of Socrates, a teacher and

philosopher, based on what he learned from a wise woman) The Arrival of Alcibiades The Speech of Alcibiades (a statesman, a beautiful man, Socrates’

lover) Conclusion

The Speech of PhaedrusLove is a great god (love is divine)…most ancient…born after Chaos and EarthLove guides us to act well and avoid shameful acts,

be gentle love as a kind of conscience?seeing things through the eyes of the other (the

beloved) That which leads us to do the good, to be perfect, no

shame but honor (love is the source of improvement, love as a task)

The best possible foundation for society and defense “no one will die for you but a lover” (179b)

Summary 180b, note that this speech emphasizes a mythological conception of love

The Speech of PausaniasLove is not yet well-defined; it is complex;

there are two kinds of love, which is not in itself praiseworthy.

“Love is not in himself noble and worthy of praise; that depends on whether the sentiments he produces in us are themselves noble” (181a).

The heavenly and the common AphroditeCommon Aphrodite: the younger goddess,

related to both female and male, moves the vulgar to focus on sex with whomever

Heavenly Aphrodite: older, of purely male descent, moves men to focus on older boys

The Speech of Pausanias

So, what’s the main message of the speech?

The Speech of PausaniasIn short, there is a key distinction between

heavenly love focused on the virtue of the soul and earthly love focused on physical, sexual appetites of the body. The improper, vile love that follows the

Common Aphrodite focuses on the body; this love is inconstant (like bodies).

The proper, honorable love that follows the Heavenly Aphrodite focuses on the soul—and the love of wisdom and virtue.

Athens’ superior customs and laws provide for the heavenly kind of love.

The Speech of EryximachusA scientific view (non-fiction)The distinction between two kinds of love is

useful, but love is a “significantly broader phenomenon” found “everywhere in the universe” (186b).

Love is the divine source of all life.The goal of the physician is “to distinguish the

Love that is noble from the Love that is ugly and disgraceful” (186d) and to promote the former, while regulating the latter.

Proper love leads to harmony between body and soul, health, plentiful harvests, piety, etc.

The Speech of AristophanesComic playwright, 448-380 BCE

Should we take this speech seriously? (189b)On the power of loveOriginal human nature:

1st point: Three kinds of humans: Male, female, and androgynous

2nd point: Completely round/spherical (like heavenly bodies), with double body parts

Attacked the gods, but Zeus had a plan Check out the Origin of Love

The Speech of AristophanesThe origin of desire (longing), hugging, and

interior reproduction “Love is born into every human being; it calls

back the halves of our original nature together; it tries to make one out of two and heal the wound of human nature” (191d).

Searching for belonging, wholeness, completionThe concept of “Merging”: “to come together

and melt together with the one he loves, so that one person emerged from two” (192e).

Masculinity is best (193c)

The Speech of AgathonLove is the youngest (contra Phaedrus),

happiest, most beautiful, and best god (note the focus on the qualities of love).

Love is delicate: he resides in the souls of gods and men.

Love is just and virtuous: “Love is neither the cause nor the victim of any injustice” (196b).

“Love is exceptionally moderate” (196c).Love is brave and love is wise.Love’s wisdom consists in making everyone he

touches a poet, like himself.A poetic finale (197d-e)

The Speech of SocratesIntro: Socrates suggests that all the speeches in praise

of Love have focused on its qualities and the words used to describe Love instead of focusing on “the truth about Love” (199b).

Socrates then questions Agathon“Is Love such as to be a love of something or of nothing?”

(199d)“Does Love desire that of which it is the love, or not?”

(200a)“Does he actually have what he desires and loves…?”“Now then, would…someone who is strong want to be

strong?” (200b) So either one desires what one does not have or one

desires the preservation of what one has in time to come.

The Speech of SocratesLove is the love of something.The something is what one needs.

Is Love then the desire for Beauty? (Does Love need Beauty?)

“Don’t you think that good things are always beautiful as well?” (201c) (Does Love need good things?)

Now that Socrates has contradicted Agathon, he begins to recount the speech about Love he learned from Diotima, a wise woman of Mantinea.

The Speech of DiotimaLove is neither beautiful nor good.Is it then ugly and bad? No, he could be in

between, like correct judgment is in between wisdom and ignorance.

Not a god? Because all gods possess good and beautiful things, whereas Love desires them.

A mortal? No, then Love must be “in between mortal and immortal” (202d).

What is in between? “A great spirit (Daimôn)”…love is spiritual, a messenger… (202e)

On Love’s birth and nature (203b-e)

The Speech of DiotimaSo, Love is not being loved, but the spiritual need

involved in being a lover. Love is the desire to possess good and beautiful things.

But “what use is Love to human beings?” “What’s the point of loving beautiful things?” (204d)

Happiness (Eudaimonia: well-being, a flourishing life)“Love is wanting to possess the good forever…This,

then, is the object of love” (206a).How do lovers pursue this object? What do they do?By “giving birth in beauty, whether in body or soul”

(206b)What does this mean?

The Speech of DiotimaHow and why?

Reproduction & immortalityOn the rites of Love: Their purpose and how they are

done correctly: The upwards ascent of Love (the continuum)In youth love beautiful bodies (ultimately of small

importance)Then beautiful soulsThe beautiful activities: customs and lawsThen beauty of knowledge (not particulars, but “great sea

of beauty”), philosophyFinally, the goal: The Form of Beauty: absolute, pure,

unchanging, “by itself with itself” (211b)Only at this stage can one move beyond images to give

birth to true virtue (212a)

The Speech of AlcibiadesFollowing Socrates’ speech in praise of Love

(212c), Alcibades, who is “plastered” (212e), gives a speech in praise of Socrates (215a).

What do we learn about Socrates?He drinks, but never gets drunk (214a, 220a).On the surface, he seems ignorant and ironic, but

deep within he is godlike (216e, see also 222a).A man of great fortitude and wisdom Resistant to the physical (e.g., beautiful bodies

and the cold) Unique: “he is like no one else in the past and no

one in the present” (221c).

Conclusion: Group Timed WritingIn groups of 3-5 students, discuss and write

answers to the following questions:

1. What conclusion(s) should we draw from this text?

2. What do you find to be most significant about this text or the most significant idea in the text?

3. Do you have any remaining questions about this text?