Eros and the intoxications of enlightenment : on Plato's Symposium / Steven Berg.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Berg, Steven, 1959-

Series:

SUNY series in ancient Greek philosophy.

SUNY series in ancient Greek philosophy

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Love.

Plato. Symposium.

Plato.

Socrates.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (184 p.)

Place of Publication:

Albany : State University of New York Press, c2010.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

"An original analysis of one of Plato's most well-known and pivotal dialogues, this study is based upon the effort to think together the most manifest themes of the Symposium (the nature of eros and the relation between poetry and philosophy) with its less obvious but no less essential themes (the character of the city and the nature and limitations of sophistic enlightenment). Author Steven Berg offers an interpretation of this dialogue wherein all the speakers at the banquet - with the exception of Socrates - not only offer their views on the nature of love, but represent Athens and the Athenian enlightenment. Accordingly, Socrates' speech, taken in relation to the speeches that precede it, is shown to articulate the relation between Socrates and the Athenian enlightenment, to expose the limitations of that enlightenment, and therefore finally to bring to light the irresolvable tension between Socrates and his philosophy and the city of Athens even at her most enlightened."--BOOK JACKET.

Contents:

Introduction

Athens and Enlightenment

Socrates made beautiful

Phaedrus : Phaedrus' best city in speech

Pausanias : noble lies and the fulfillment of greekness

Eryximachus : sovereign science and the sacred law

Athens and the poets

Aristophanes : Eros, soul, and law

Agathon : Eros, soul, and rhetoric

Socrates and Athens

Socrates : daimonic eros

Alcibiades : divine Socrates

Conclusion: Socrates and Plato.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. 155-168) and index.

ISBN:

9781438430195

1438430191

9781441640994

1441640991

OCLC:

593295903