Plato's Erotic World

From Cosmic Origins to Human Death
Erscheinungsjahr 2014
ISBN: 978-1-107-42357-2
Verlag: Cambridge University Press

Buch, Englisch, 254 Seiten, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm, Gewicht: 418 g

Plato's entire fictive world is permeated with philosophical concern for Eros, well beyond the so-called erotic dialogues. Several metaphysical, epistemological and cosmological conversations – Timaeus, Cratylus, Parmenides, Theaetetus and Phaedo – demonstrate that Eros lies at the root of the human condition and that properly guided Eros is the essence of a life well lived. This book presents a holistic vision of Eros, beginning with the presence of Eros at the origin of the cosmos and the human soul, surveying four types of human self-cultivation aimed at good guidance of Eros and concluding with human death as a return to our origins. The book challenges conventional wisdom regarding the 'erotic dialogues' and demonstrates that Plato's world is erotic from beginning to end: the human soul is primordially erotic and the well-cultivated erotic soul can best remember and return to its origins, its lifelong erotic desire.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Gordon, Jill

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literaturgeschichte und Literaturkritik
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Alte Geschichte & Archäologie Geschichte der klassischen Antike
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Geschichte der Westlichen Philosophie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction; 1. Cosmos; 2. Questioning; 3. Courage; 4. Matchmaking; 5. Self-knowledge; 6. Memory.

Über Autor(innen)

Gordon, Jill
Jill Gordon is the Charles A. Dana Professor of Philosophy at Colby College. She is the author of Turning Toward Philosophy: Literary Device and Dramatic Structure in Plato's Dialogues (1999).