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Showing posts with label Philosophy of love. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Philosophy of love. Show all posts

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Symposium

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1.During a banquet a number of speeches praising the god Love are delivered ;
the first speech,by Phaedrus,makes the claim that :
"love between virtuous men and youth is of the highest type",
the chief motive to a noble life.
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2.Pausanias distinguishes between
A.common Love,which is of the body,and
B.heavenly Love,which is the LOVE OF VIRTUE AND PHILOSOPHY.
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3.Eryximachus the physician argues that :
"love is the principle of HARMONY which reconciles the hostile elements in the body".
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4.Aristophanes,satirizing physiological theories of love,maintains that
"the human body was originally round,having four arms,four feet,a head with two faces,..."
and that
"Zeus,to punish men for rebellion,split them in two ;
ever since that time,the halves have sought each other avidly ;
the desire to be reunited is love".
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5.Agathon praises Love as
"the most beautiful and youngest of the gods,possessed of all the virtues".
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6.Socrates explains how
"from a love of the beauty of physical objects one can pass to the apprehension of the nature of Beauty itself,the ideal,and thereby share Love's divinity".
..

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Phaedrus by Plato

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Lysias is reported by Phaedrus as having argued that :
" it is better to be loved by one who does not love than by one who does "
for the lover is moved by passion and can do harm.
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Socrates at first agrees that :
" love is irrational and therefore harmful ",
but on reflection he maintains that :
" madness is sometime divine,and that love is a kind of divine madness ".
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The soul is like a winged charioteer driving a team of horses ;
the charioteer,if inspired by love of the ideal,
"is reason or intelligence in control of the good horse -Will- and the bad horse -Passion-".
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Souls which have seen the most of Being,
having known the eternal forms or Ideas of all things,
pass into the bodies of philosophers,or lovers of wisdom ;
souls which are disciplined and full of wisdom return to their heavenly home.
..
Good rhetoric depends on having true knowledge ;
the Sophists are mistaken in claiming that
"the appearance of knowledge is all that is necessary".
..