Plato's Erotic World: From Cosmic Origins to Human Death
Cambridge University Press, 8/13/2012
EAN 9781107024113, ISBN10: 1107024110
Hardcover, 254 pages, 22.8 x 15.2 x 2.3 cm
Language: English
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.
Introduction
1. Cosmos
2. Questioning
3. Courage
4. Matchmaking
5. Self-knowledge
6. Memory.