Part III Greek and Latin Criticism During the Roman Empire 103. By this he means that we must not seek to give all the qualities of love but praise for the qualities that really. This project was sponsored by MHRD, New Delhi under NMEICT (Sakshat) initiatives for eContent development. Summary. The former scene's concern with retellings of the past she relates to a merely acquisitive model of eros; the latter's concern with progress for the future she relates to Socrates' procreative model of eros. He is not a professional critic. In her work, Smith explains the need for adopting a particular ''Black feminist approach to the literature. 191-3). Aristotle’s criticism on democracy and oligarchy are very valid in the sense that they sometimes both meet on their extremes. Socrates thinks that the other guests were a praise “forced” rather than a true praise. 103-4), citing the opening of Republic Book 6 and the Digression in the Theaetetus. The Speech of Agathon. In contrast, no philosopher is ignorant, because he believes he is already wise. "The policy of always acting for the sake of one's happiness will never lead one astray . “Bodily exercise, when compulsory, done no harm to the body; but knowledge which is acquired under compulsion obtains no hold on the mind” – Plato, Republic; Like this quote, there are many other thoughts and views that are quite contradictory with his own thoughts. On their interpretation, "giving birth to virtue" tells against the intellectualists' emphasis on self-transformation and contemplation, which is primarily self-directed and, in the case of contemplation, potentially solitary. “. The men include the philosopher Socrates, the general and political figure Alcibiades, and the comic playwright Aristophanes. This confirms that those who attain happiness by replicating its revolutions inside their own heads will be becoming contemplators, not socially or politically virtuous beings" (p. 102 n. 22). “. If you’d like to see all lectures, they’re here. google_ad_width = 728; But it is only at chapter's end that he turns to the Symposium. At once a historical document, a philosophical drama that enacts abstract ideas in an often light-hearted way, and a literary masterpiece, it has exerted an influence that goes well beyond the confines of philosophy. This Critical Guide to Plato's Symposium fits the mold admirably. Trivigno's chapter is the more convincing because it carefully locates the comic portrayal of Eryximachus in the context of Attic comedy in general, in which medical practitioners are frequent butts of satire and the comic impostor a standard figure. Its legacy has been far reaching, inspiring religion and mysticism, to visions of art, the good, and the beautiful. That their original condition is not fully recoverable need not make their aspiration futile; aspiration can do its work even asymptotically. So, he does not comment with the use of myth or with analysis in the form of a monologue, like the others did, but dialectically. This is a powerful thought, which Kraut develops with great subtlety over a range of Platonic dialogues. The six chapters by the intellectualists and the moralists, for their part, are organized principally by theme (divinization, the nature of eros, immortality, etc. Their ambition led them to want to become the equal of the gods. Overall Summary; Context; Overall Analysis and Themes; 172a - 177e; 178a - 180b; 180c - 185c; 185c - 189b; 189c - 193e; 193e - 197e; 198a - 201c; 201d - 204c; 204d - 209e; 210a - 212c; 212c - 216c ; 216c - 223d; Characters. . Agathon begins by explaining how he plans to shift his speech from the previous by describing the nature of Love and celebrating him, rather than congratulating humans on the good things that come from Love. Let’s see why. Perseus Digital Library). He was asked to sing the love as if it were a single thing, then there are several types of love. Know first of all that there is no single answer to this question. “. They are therefore intermediaries. She contends that, although his speech is of great philosophic importance for the dialogue (launching as it does the conception of love as lack), it is not intended by Plato to offer the independently valuable, quasi-romantic account of love that so many modern readers have taken away from it. So why do we say “that some like and others do not like” one? On the contrary, Plato wants us to find the speech deeply pessimistic; the love that it presents is futile because misdirected, irrational, and incapable of ultimate satisfaction. The remaining seven contributions explore varied territory: two early chapters discuss how the scene is set (Zina Giannopoulou) and how the first four speeches hang together as a group (Jeremy Reid); there are studies of single speeches (Franco Trivigno on Eryximachus; Suzanne Obdrzalek on Aristophanes; Francisco Gonzalez on Agathon); a piece by the classicist Radcliffe Edmonds updates our historical understanding of the Mysteries, with implications for their use in the dialogue; a final chapter by Richard Kraut challenges the orthodoxy that Plato is a eudaemonist and applies the lesson of that challenge to the analysis of Platonic eros. Socrates and Aristodemus will attend a banquet at Agathon, with Aristophanes, Appolodore, Pausanias and Eryximachus. . Cambridge University Press, 2017, 268pp., $80.00, ISBN 9781108180344. Pierre Destrée and Zina Giannopoulou (eds. They deal with questions of: what Love is; interpersonal relationships through love; what types of love are worthy of praise; the purpose of love; and others. ); Anthony Price comes nearest to giving an account of Diotima's speech as a whole. What they insist on, rather, is that the philosopher's Ascent does not culminate in the contemplation of Beauty but in giving birth to virtue; and "giving birth to virtue" they take to be an activity like that ascribed by Diotima to the "pregnant in soul," who are inspired to impart an education to those with whom they fall in love. Pierre Destrée and Zina Giannopoulou (eds.). Plato’s harsh condemnation of the poets often causes us to fail to realize Plato was himself a poet. the symposium, Plato has Apollodorus preface his account of the party with the revelation that he was not himself present at the banquet but learned everything that he is about to relate from Aristodemus, another follower of Socrates and first-hand witness to the symposium. Plato gives this trippy exegesis to the playwright Aristophanes, who appears as a character in the book.. Before turning to Aristophanes’s odd speech, let’s set the stage. Cite this article as: Tim, "Plato’s Symposium : Analysis and Commentary, April 12, 2012, " in. This criticism comes from Plato speaking through the mouth of Socrates who makes a brief comment on what Agathon has said, opening a conversation with him before he actually starts his own encomium. Plato (c. 428–c. Alcibiades failed both morally and politically, that is true; but even if it is also true that, had he received a Socratic education, he would not have failed in this way, this does not mean that the virtue at which the philosopher aims is moral and political rather than intellectual virtue. Find the first lecture here. According to him, the greatest good for a man is to have a lover. It is the first major philosophical text on love in Western literature. In practice Platonic criticism is part of an extensive approach to literature, involving an examination of the moral, ethical, and historical effects of a work of art. Plato's Symposium: A Critical Guide (Cambridge Critical Guides) | Destrée, Pierre, Giannopoulou, Zina | ISBN: 9781107110052 | Kostenloser Versand für alle Bücher mit Versand und Verkauf duch Amazon. The guests decide not to get drunk, but drinking a little and discuss about love. Similarly, the music seeks harmony (eg, between high and low) music is a kind of love “music is also for the harmony and rhythm, a movement science in love. If you’d like to see all lectures, they’re here. Athens is remembered for being the birthplace of democracy, drama, and philosophy. In practice Platonic criticism is part of an extensive approach to literature, involving an examination of the moral, ethical, and historical effects of a work of art.. Literary Criticism of Plato By Nasrullah Mambrol on May 1, 2017 • ( 11). Acknowledging precedents for his enterprise in work by Michael Stokes and by David Sedley, he marshals an impressive battery of evidence to support the idea that Agathon himself, as a character, is endowed with a genuine concern for genuine philosophic problems. Take the example of the learned and the ignorant. 348 BCE) and Aristotle (384–322 BCE) are generally regarded as the two greatest figures of Western philosophy. Plato’s criticism on the many kinds of regimes depends on the degree from which they have departed from ideal democracy. He used to answer this question a myth, still famous as the “myth of Aristophanes.”. Some Notable Afterimages of Plato's Symposium, J. H ... White 1989:152–157 for a criticism of the view that (a) love is of the beautiful and (b) the beautiful is identical with the good. This is progress. While at least some of these six chapters deal in addition with other, related concerns, to read this volume from cover to cover and continuously (as perhaps few of its readers will do) is to be given a bracing work-out by the intellectualist and moralist teams, each claiming the reader for its side. It is love of knowledge. The Phaedrus was presumably composed around 370 BCE, about the same time as Plato's Republic and Symposium. This is a series of lectures on the philosophy of love and sexuality. The-Philosophy helps high-school & university students but also curious people on human sciences to quench their thirst for knowledge. Plato's Symposium and the Traditions of Ancient Fiction, Richard Hunter 14. After this speech, Eryximachus said he would consider the love of a perspective more generally. Even worse, democracy embraces total freedom (which Plato calls … Video: Plato’s Symposium. google_ad_slot = "6885402617"; Plato’s critique of democracy is that democracy does not place a premium on wisdom and knowledge seeking as an inherent good, much like timocracy and oligarchy. Powered by WordPress. Yet it is not immediately attainable. The proposed theme of the discussion is love. Find the first lecture here. The most spirited and extreme opposition to this idea is found in Destrée's chapter, which centres on the speech of Alcibiades. 220-1). Jonathan Barnes - 1996 - Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 56 (2):489-491. (Those speeches make an appearance in Reid's chapter alone.) 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