Philosophy 298: Seminar & Project: The Philosophy of Love

Lovers (From A Greek Vase)

Guidelines: The Phi 290 series are meant to be independent study courses in which the more advanced student in philosophy can explore topics in philosophy in greater depth with a senior professor as a guide. The seminar or tutorial meets as necessary to prepare the student to do research into a theme within a given topic. The purpose of the seminar is to aid the student in producing a research paper or an appropriate project that explores an agreed upon theme. The research and the paper or project are to be shared with other members of the seminar both while the work is underway and after it is completed.

1. In Praise of Love: A Conversation With Plato's Symposium, E. Piscitelli

2. Cicero On Friendship

3. "Dialectics:" E. Piscitelli (Presupposed for all my philosophy courses.)

4.Four Loves, C.S. Lewis, , Harcourt Brace, New York, (1960).

5. Love in the Western World (Princeton Paperbacks), Denis De Rougemont, (1983 Revised Edition)

Secondary Reading List

1. Words for Love in Classical Greek Thought. (From Kittel)

2. Love and Friendship, Alan Bloom, Simon & Schuster, 1993. cf. Bloom's "Ladder of Love."

1. Consider the different readings of the Symposium: Exegetical (within the speeches), Systematic (between the speeches), and Horizonal (Between Plato and the Reader). The exegetical is the most basic. Without a good exegetical reading none of the others can be done properly. Each then builds on the prior one. You cannot do an Horizonal interpretation without having done the exegetical and the systematic properly. Keep that in mind because I will ask you about your evidence from the prior readings if you try to give a systematic or horizonal reading.

Note that every speech except Alcibiades speaks of love (Eros) as a one way relation: Lover to Beloved. (Erastes to Eromenos). Phaedrus tries to praise the lover but praised the beloved (himself). Pausanias cannot praise a lover who is really after the body of the beloved so he has to praise the beloved as submitting to the lover for a higher purpose. Eryximachus praises the power of the lover to please the beloved so that love is in the service of the beloved. Aristophanes praises the power of love to complete lover and beloved by destroying both in an amalgam of fused bodies and ecstatic consciousness in oblivion that amounts to death of body and psyche. Agathon praises love as the work of the poet-artist whose beloved is the work of art itself, the poem. For Agathon love is about the poem not the lover. The lover is praised only insofar as he produces a poem worthy of praise. Socrates/Diotima do much the same thing except they distinguish the various objects of love (Beloved Eromenos) until they reach the MOST BELOVED BEAUTY ITSELF. And even then IF ANYONE can BE IMMORTAL and the most Loved OF THE GODS, it is the one who produced true virtue.

"When he has generated (tekonti) and cultivated true virtue, he will become most loved by the gods (uparch theophile genesthai), and if any man can become immortal, he will be the one!"

The hint is the philosopher will become the Beloved of the gods but that does not seem right because there is no equality between gods and men. Alcibiades alone demands a lover become a beloved. That is his complaint against Socrates. Alcibiades loved him but Socrates did not return his love. Alcibiades alone makes RECIPROCITY the key to true love. Is Alcibiades' complaint MISTAKEN? Plato challenges the reader to introduce GENUINE RECIPROCITY into EROS. We will begin with this topic next meeting. Think about it.
Dr. P.

2. A Note on the speech of Alcibiades: How does Alcibiades' speech complete Diotima's speech? Alcibiades examines his life but comes to a different conclusion from Socrates. He does not refuse to examine his life, but he does so with different assumptions. Alcibiades is beyond the "beautiful bodies" stage. His concern is with ruling. So he is like the philosopher, but he is the philosopher turned tyrant. That was the danger about which the Republic cautioned: the philosophical eros can become tyrannical. Power is the issue that separates Alcibiades from Socrates. So the Straussians are wrong to emphasize the carnal element by itself in Socrates' rejection of Alcibiades. Rather Alcibiades uses the flesh as an instrument (symbol) of power. When Alcibiades offered his body to him, Socrates would not be seduced. Socrates recognized it as a power play! Think how angry a beautiful woman would get if she could not get what she wanted from a man she was trying to seduce! That is what is going on between Alcibiades and Socrates. For Alcibiades it is the POWER thing; for him power is Erotic. Alcibiades is like the woman seductress who wants to use her body to gain power over the man (Socrates). Alicibiades left it in his will that he be buried dressed in the clothes of a woman. His woman lover saw to it that he was. For Plato the issue is the non-oppressive use of power and the power of beauty itself which can be misdirected. Beauty like power is oppressive if it is not directed at the Good. Dr. P.

Student Papers and Projects

Applications

1. Plato and C. S. Lewis: Correspondence of Dr. P. with Dr. M (Patrick Mohr of the University of Scranton)