Plato's Theory of Eros in the Symposisum: Abstract

Abstract

Recent work on Plato has rekindled interest in his theory of love. Several studies offer partial exegeses and critical assessments of the theory. Yet a systematic reconstruction of the theory does not exist, and disagreements remain about its central features and its virtues and defects. In this paper I offer such a reconstruction. In a larger study I attempt to understand and assess the theory relative to its cultural context and relative to recent, empirically oriented theories of love in the social sciences and biology. It must be remembered that while in English the single, all inclusive word 'love' covers a wide variety of feelings, attitudes, and behavior, in Ancient Greek three different words were used to cover different, perhaps overlaping portions of this variety. Eros was used to cover primarily the case of sexual love, and philia the cases of familial love and friendship, while agape represents a significant concept perhaps only later, in the New Testament. Here we are concerned only with Plato's theory of eros in the Symposium, though comparisons to philia and agape are useful and illuminating. To understand and assess a theory of love it is useful to place it in at least two wider settings. One is the cultural setting of the writer. This is important because some of the things a writer make take as characteristic of love or as data for his theory may be culture bound; for example, sexual attitudes and customs, courting and mating practices, perceptions of beauty. In the speeches of Phaedrus, Pausanias, Eryximachus, and Aristophanes Plato provides a partial cultural context for the theory expounded by Socrates and Diotima. Plato's theory must be placed in its cultural context. Perhaps the most sig-