Egoism, Utility, and Friendship in Plato’s Lysis

Authors

  • Irina Deretic University of Belgrade–Belgrade–Serbia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14195/1984-249X_32_41

Keywords:

Plato’s Socrates, Friendship, Love, Utility, Egoism

Abstract

Many scholars consider that Socrates in the Lysis holds that friendship and love are egoistic and utility-based. In this paper, I will argue against those readings of Plato’s Lysis. I will analyze how Socrates treats utility and egoism in the many different kinds of friendship he discusses in the dialogue, from parental love, like-to-like, and unlike-to-unlike relationships, to the accounts of friendship rooted in the human relation to the good and the ways in which we can belong with some other human beings. The upshot of my paper is twofold. I endeavor to prove that some of these relationships, as Plato’s Socrates discusses them, are not egoistic and that Plato represents and valorizes a particular type of friendship having to do with philosophy and philosophical way of life, which is for the sake of another.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

ADAMS, D. (1992). The Lysis Puzzles. History of Philosophy Quarterly 9, p. 3-17.

ANNAS, J. (1977). Plato and Aristotle on Friendship and Altruism. Mind 86, p. 532-554.

BARNES, J. (1984). The Complete Works of Aristotle, vol. 2 Princeton, Princeton University Press.

BURNET, J. (1903). Platonis Opera, vol. 3 Oxford, Oxford University Press.

BELFIORE, E. S. (2012). Socrates’ Daimonic Art: Love for Wisdom in Four Platonic Dialogues Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.

BOLOTIN, D. (1979). Plato’s Dialogue on Friendship: An Interpretation of the Lysis with a New Translation Ithaca, Cornell University Press.

BORDT, M. (trans.). (1998). Platon, Lysis: Übersetzung und Kommentar. Platon, Werke (Vol. 5, 4). Göttingen, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.

BRICKHOUSE; T. C.; SMITH N. D. (1994). Plato’s Socrates Oxford University Press, Oxford.

COOPER, J. M.; HUTCHINSON, D. S. (eds.). (1997). Plato: Complete Works Indianapolis/Cambridge, Hackett Publishing Company.

DERETIC, I. (2016). On the Origin and Genesis of Humans and Other Mortals in Plato’s Protagoras. In: DERETIC, I.; SORGNER, S. L. (eds.). From Humanism to Meta-, Post- and Transhumanism? Frankfurt am Main, Peter Lang Verlag, p. 21-36.

DANCY, R. M. (2006). With Friends, ‘More Is Going on than Meets the Eye.’ A Discussion of Terry Penner and Christopher Rowe, Plato’s Lysis. Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 31, p. 323-47.

CUMMINS, W. J. (1981). “Eros”, “Epithumia”, and “Philia” in Plato. Apeiron: A Journal for Ancient Philosophy and Science 15(1), p. 10-18.

GADAMER, H. G. (1985). Logos und Ergon im Platonischen Lysis. In: GADAMER, H. G. Gesammelte Werke 6. Griechische Philosophie II Tübingen, Mohr Siebeck, p. 171-86.

GIMÉNEZ, J. A. (2020). Friendship, Knowledge and Reciprocity in Lysis Apeiron 53, p. 315-337.

GLASER, K. (1935). Gang und Ergebnis des platonischen „Lysis“, Wiener Studien 53, p. 47-67.

GONZALEZ, F. J. (1995). Plato’s Lysis: An Enactment of Philosophical Kinship. Ancient Philosophy 15, p. 69-90.

HADEN, J. (1983). Friendship in Plato’s “Lysis.” The Review of Metaphysics 37(2), p. 327-356.

IRWIN, T. (1977) Plato’s Moral Theory. Oxford, Clarendon Press.

JENNINGS, D. (2022). The akin vs. the good in Plato’s Lysis. In: JENNINGS, D.; SZAIF, J. (eds.), Studies on Plato’s Lysis, special issue of Archai 32, suppl.1.

JOWETT, B. (1892). The Dialogues of Plato, Vol. 1. London, Oxford University Press.

KRAUT, R. (2016). Altruism. In: ZALTA, E. N. (ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University. Retrieved from https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2020/entries/altruism/

» https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2020/entries/altruism/

KREFT, N. (2012). Das Problem der gegenseitigen Liebe im Lysis, Symposion und Phaidros In HORN, Ch. (ed.). Platon, Symposion Berlin, Akademie Verlag, p. 207-221.

LAMB, W. R. M. (trans.) (1925). Plato: Lysis. Symposium. Gorgias Cambridge (Mass.), Harvard University Press.

LIDDEL, H. G.; SCOTT, R. (1996). A Greek-English Lexicon Oxford, Clarendon Press .

LOMBARDO, S. (trans.) (1997). Plato. Lysis In: COOPER, J. M. & HUTCHINSON, D. S. (eds.). Plato: Complete Works . Indianapolis/Cambridge, Hackett Publishing Company , p. 688-707.

NICHOLS, M. P. (2009). Socrates on Friendship and Community: Reflections on Plato’s Symposium, Phaedrus, and Lysis (1st ed.). Cambridge, Cambridge University Press .

OBDRZALEK, S. (2013). Socrates on Love. In BUSSANICH J. & SMITH N. D. (ed.), The Bloomsbury Companion to Socrates London: Bloomsbury, p. 210-232.

PANGLE, L. S. (2001). Friendship and Human Neediness in Plato’s Lysis. Ancient Philosophy , 21, p. 305-323.

PENNER, T.; ROWE, Ch. (2005). Plato’s Lysis Cambridge, Cambridge University Press .

PRICE, A. W. (1990). Love and Friendship in Plato and Aristotle Oxford, Oxford University Press .

RESHOTKO, N. (2000). The Good, the Bad, and the neither Good nor Bad in Plato’s Lysis The Southern Journal of Philosophy 38, p. 251-262.

ROTH, M. D. (1995). Did Plato Nod? Some Conjectures on Egoism and Friendship in the Lysis. Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie, 77, p. 1-20.

RUDEBUSCH, G. (2004). True Love is Requited: The Argument of Lysis 221d-222a. Ancient Philosophy 24, p. 67-80.

SZAIF, J. (2011). Aristotle on Friendship as the Paradigmatic Form of Relationship. In: KING, R.; SCHILLING, D. (eds.). How Should One Live? Comparing Ethics in Ancient China and Greco-Roman Antiquity Berlin, De Gruyter, p. 208-237.

SZAIF, J. (2022). Aporetic Discourse and Protreptic in Plato’s Lysis In: JENNINGS, D.; SZAIF, J. (eds.), Studies on Plato’s Lysis, special issue of Archai , 32, suppl.1.

VLASTOS, G. (1973). The Individual as Object of Love in Plato. In: VLASTOS, G., Platonic Studies Princeton (N. J.), Princeton University Press.

WOLF, U. (1992). Die Freundschaftskonzeption in Platons Lysis. In ANGEHRN, E.; FINK-EITEL, H.; IBER, C.; LOHMANN, G. (eds.). Dialektischer Negativismus: Michael Theunissen zum 60. Geburtstag. Frankfurt am Main, Suhrkamp, p. 103-129.

WOLFSDORF, D. (2007). Φιλία in Plato’s “Lysis.” Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 103, p. 235-259.

WRIGHT, J. (1848). The Phaedrus, Lysis, and Protagoras of Plato London, John W. Parker.

YONEZAWA, S. (2018). Socratic Euporia and Aporia in the Lysis. Apeiron 51, p. 125-146.

Downloads

Published

2023-01-23

How to Cite

Deretic, I. (2023). Egoism, Utility, and Friendship in Plato’s Lysis. Revista Archai, (32), e03241. https://doi.org/10.14195/1984-249X_32_41

Issue

No. 32 (2022): Archai 32 (2022): Supplementum

Section

Studies on Plato's Lysis

License

Copyright (c) 2023 Irina Deretic

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Given the public access policy of the journal, the use of the published texts is free, with the obligation of recognizing the original authorship and the first publication in this journal. The authors of the published contributions are entirely and exclusively responsible for their contents.

1. The authors authorize the publication of the article in this journal.
2. The authors guarantee that the contribution is original, and take full responsibility for its content in case of impugnation by third parties.
3. The authors guarantee that the contribution is not under evaluation in another journal.
4. The authors keep the copyright and convey to the journal the right of first publication, the work being licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License-BY.
5. The authors are allowed and stimulated to publicize and distribute their work on-line after the publication in the journal.
6. The authors of the approved works authorize the journal to distribute their content, after publication, for reproduction in content indexes, virtual libraries and similars.
7. The editors reserve the right to make adjustments to the text and to adequate the article to the editorial rules of the journal.