Abstract

MIRANDA FILHO, Mário. Note on Eros in Plato’s Symposium. Ide (São Paulo) [online]. 2011, vol.34, n.52, pp. 43-56. ISSN 0101-3106.

This paper attempts to summarize Plato’s approach to eroticism. It seeks to show that Plato’s starting point lies between poetry and philosophy, but reaches out to the political level, thus expanding the concept. Plato thus shows that eroticism is not reducible to love in the day-to-day meaning of the word, but rather a striving to overcome our mortal condition. Thus understood, erotic love is associated with our search for beauty and knowledge; oftentimes it comprises tragicomic aspects such as a sense of rebellion and a belief in one’s omnipotence which can end in disaster.

Keywords : Love; Philosophy; Poetry; Mortality; Eternity; Fusion; Atheism; Nihilism; Incest; Cannibalism; Law; Rebellion; Procreation.

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