Plato’s Lysis and the Erotics of Philia

Authors

  • David Roochnik

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14195/1984-249X_32_42

Keywords:

Plato, Lysis, friendship, philia, eros, desire, Aristotle

Abstract

This paper argues that the account of friendship (philia) present in Plato's dialogue the Lysis is rife with the disruptive and maddening force of eros.By its end it is no longer clear whether the familiar sorts of personal relationships that we typically count as friendships, and which Aristotle discusses with great sensitivity and appreciation in theNicomachean Ethics,can be meaningfully sustained. To support this thesis, the paper analyzes each of the seven, relatively self-contained arguments Socrates offers. In addition, it shows how the dramatic context in which these arguments are embedded foreshadows the dialogue's principal objective: to blur the distinction between philiaand eros by allowing the latter to infect the former

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References

BAYWATER, J. (ed.) (1894). Aristotlelis. Ethica Nicomachea Oxford, The Clarendon Press.

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

DOVER, K. (1980). Greek Homosexuality New York, Random House.

GADAMER, H.-G. (1980). Dialogue and Dialectic SMITH, P. C. (trans.). New Haven, Yale University Press.

MILLER, M. (1991). Plato’s Parmenides. State College, Pennsylvania State University Press.

MILLER. M. (2004). The Philosopher in Plato’s Statesman Las Vegas, Parmenides Publishing.

NAILS, D. (2002). The People of Plato Indianapolis, Hackett.

NELSON, S. (2009). Hesiod's Theogony. Newburyport, Focus.

PENNER, T.; ROWE, C. (2005). Plato's Lysis Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.

ROOCHNIK, D. (2001). The Deathbed Dream of Reason: Socrates’ Dream in the Phaedo Arethusa 34, p. 239-258.

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Published

2023-01-23

How to Cite

Roochnik, D. (2023). Plato’s Lysis and the Erotics of Philia. Revista Archai, (32), e03242. https://doi.org/10.14195/1984-249X_32_42

Issue

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

Section

Studies on Plato's Lysis

License

Copyright (c) 2023 David Roochnik

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