Eros In Plato

[Philosophy Now]

Alfred Geier uncovers the erotic side of Socratic philosophy.

https://philosophynow.org/issues/85/Eros_In_Plato

[Nick_A]

A very thought provoking article. I don’t expect much of a response since eros questions the ultimate value of literal thought inviting the experience of higher reality. This goes over like lead balloon. I’ve got to think on this for a while and get back to it. But to begin with I’d like to introduce again what I believe to be the harm of killing eros in the young and the resulting metaphysical repression. Jacob Needleman explains it.

http://www.conversations.org/story.php?sid=1

I remember I was a freshman at Harvard, in one of my first philosophy classes there. The professor started by asking—like I do sometimes, like professors do—what do you expect to get out of philosophy? I put up my hand and said, "I want to know why I'm living, why we die. Does God exist? What are we here for?" I went on an on like that, and I could see around me that there was this silence. My throat got dry, and I just felt awful. At first I'd thought that I was going to speak for the whole human race. And the professor, of course, was saying, "Yes. Go on." He knew he had one. Finally I just couldn't go on any more. Then he said, "Yes. But you see, that's not philosophy. If you want to know those things, you have to see a psychiatrist or a priest. This is not philosophy." It was such a shock.
I recovered quite well, but I had to find a few other people who shared my hunger. It is the hunger you're speaking of. That is what Plato called eros—a word that's come down to us which has taken on a sexual association. But for Plato it had to do, in part, with a striving that is innate in us, a striving to participate with one's mind, one's consciousness, in something greater than oneself. A love of wisdom, if you like, a love of being.
Eros is depicted in Plato's text, The Symposium, as half man, half god, a kind of intermediate force between the gods and mortals. It is a very interesting idea. Eros is what gives birth to philosophy. Modern philosophy often translates the word "wonder" merely as "curiosity," the desire to figure things out, or to intellectually solve problems rather than confronting the depth of these questions, pondering, reflecting, being humbled by them. In this way, philosophy becomes an exercise in meaningless ingenuity.
I did learn to play that game, and then to avoid it.
My students at SF State were very hungry for what most of us, down deeply, really want from philosophy. When we honor those unanswerable questions and open them and deepen them, students are very happy about it, very interested in a deep quiet way.

RW: It is really very hard to find that, I believe.

JN: Some years ago I had a chance to teach a course in philosophy in high school. I got ten or twelve very gifted kids at this wonderful school, San Francisco University High School. In that first class I said, "Now just imagine, as if this was a fairy tale, imagine you are in front of the wisest person in the world, not me, but the wisest person there is and you can only ask one question. What would you ask?" At first they giggled and then they saw that I was very serious. So then they started writing. What came back was astonishing to me. I couldn't understand it at first. About half of the things that came back had little handwriting at the bottom or the sides of the paper in the margin. Questions like, Why do we live? Why do we die? What is the brain for? Questions of the heart. But they were written in the margins as though they were saying, do we really have permission to express these questions? We're not going to be laughed at? It was as though this was something that had been repressed.

RW: Fascinating.

JN: It's what I call metaphysical repression. It's in our culture and It's much worse than sexual repression. It represses eros and I think that maybe that's where art can be of help sometimes. Some art.

From the article

Socrates now asks Agathon if eros desires and loves its object or not; and, further, whether it is in having or in not having the object that one desires and loves it. Socrates argues that it is necessary that desire depends entirely on lack, and that to continue, eros thus does not ever ‘have’ its object. Socrates summarizes the object of erotic desire as that which is not at hand and that which is not present and that which it does not have and that which it itself is not.

As you can see it isn’t easy to explain and justify eros which is why it is so easy to ridicule and destroy it in the young in favor of pursuing indoctrinated secular values. It is worth some serious pondering at least on my part. It is sad to learn of so many young people turning to materialism and commercialism because they have lost eros and the love of wisdom..

[Nick_A]

Sometimes when i read a good article I send the author a note of appreciation and sometimes even a question. I was going to do this now but unfortunately learned that he just recently passed away.

Alfred Geier
1930 - 2018 Obituary Condolences

Alfred Geier Obituary
Alfred Geier

Rochester - passed away with his daughter, Naomi, by his side on January 24. Alfred spent his life teaching and studying as a Professor of Classics at the University of Rochester. Calling hours and a celebration of his life will be held between 2 & 5pm on SATURDAY, March 3rd at the Rochester Academy of Medicine (1441 East Ave, Roch. 14610).