The Poverty of Eros in Plato's Symposium

by Lorelle D. Lamascus

Overview

The Poverty of Eros in Plato's Symposium offers an innovative new approach towards Eros and the concept of Eros in the Symposium. Lorelle D. Lamascus argues that Plato's depiction of Eros as the child of Poverty (penia) and Resource (poros) is central to understanding the nature of love. Eros is traditionally seen as self-interested or acquisitive, but this book argues instead that Eros and reason are properly in accord with one another. The moral life and the philosophical life alike depend upon properly trained and directed Eros.

Lamascus demonstrates that the presentation of the nature of Poverty is essential to the nature of Eros in the Symposium, doing this through in-depth discussion of the major twentieth century interpretations of Platonic Eros. The book shows that poverty provides an appropriate directing of Eros towards eternal and unchanging goods (and away from an age geared towards material items and wealth), and thus that Plato's mythical treatment of Eros in the Symposium lays the groundwork for understanding the soul's embrace of poverty as a way of living, loving, and knowing.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781350048027
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	09/21/2017
Series:	Bloomsbury Studies in Ancient Philosophy
Pages:	200
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.42(d)

About the Author

Lorelle D. Lamascus is Visiting Assistant Professor of Philosophy at St. Mary's University, USA.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
i. A Note on Interpretation ii. Platonic Eros in the Early Part of the Twentieth Century iii. Platonic Eros in the Mid- to Late-Twentieth Century iv. The Response to the Charge of Egoism

2. Myth and Religion in the Interpretation of Eros in the Symposium
i. Mythology in the Symposium

3. The Development of the Concept of Poverty: From Deficiency to Abundance
i. The Importance of Poverty in the Symposium
ii. The Concept of Poverty

4. The Intermediacy of Eros
i. Eros, Desire, and Wish: Establishing the Intermediacy of Eros ii. The Structure of Eros iii. An Enquiry into the Senses of Intermediacy Applicable to Eros iv. On the Diverse Ways of Being Intermediate

5. Metaphysics, Motion, and Morality
i. The Metaphysical Status of Eros as Intermediate ii. The Use and Work of Eros as Intermediate

6. Poverty in the Ascent to the Vision of Beauty
i. The Structure of Socrates' Discourse ii. Eros, the Tripartite Soul, and Participation in Immortality

7. Katharsis and the Purification of Eros
i. The Concept of Katharsis in the Phaedo and the Sophist
ii. The Method of Katharsis iii. Virtue and Katharsis iv. Conclusion: The Purification of Eros

Bibliography

Index

Editorial Reviews

This book goes a long way toward correcting widespread, eisegetically influenced, misreadings of Plato and in particular, misreadings of his use of myth and of his understanding of eros. Lamascus's focus on the relationship of poverty to eros and its interrelationship with eros's role in seeking of the good and beautiful manifest the degree to which the intellect can grasp man's nature as ordered to the infinite without possessing it in his nature as a creature. Poverty of Eros in Plato's Symposium is a must read for anyone interested in Plato, classical philosophy, or indeed, anyone interested in the phenomenology of the human person.

This book offers interesting insights and sheds some new light on this much read text. It should find its way into university libraries.
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