PLATO 2

■ Both for Christian Theology as well as for Plato this world is not our home
– We are going from here to an ultimate reality
– This World of sense perception depends on a nonsensible reality
■ Saint Augustine in his “Confessions”
– – the Platonists enabled him to overcome in his journey to Christianity the
hindrance caused by is own inability to conceive any reality that was not
sensible.
■ For Plato, the soul is immortal and its knowledge of the world of Forms. It is this
knowledge which attracts us in this present world towards goodness.
■ Therefore, it is necessary for us to turn (metanoia) from the sensible world to search
for knowledge of the supersensible (insensible) reality on which this world depends.
■ How is the soul to make this journey? To seek that which is truly good?
■ ‘Love’ is the virtue that assists us to pursue towards what is truly good and beautiful.
– Three of Plato’s dialogues are devoted to the subject of love
■ Symposium (Συµπόσιον, Sympósion)
■ Phaedrus (Φαῖδρος, 'Phaidros’)
■ Lysis (Λύσις) - an early dialogue
Symposium (385–370 BC)
– A dialogue of Plato that is devoted in praise of Eros – the god of love and desire (son of
Aphrodite).
– Context: A friendly contest of extemporaneous speeches by three notable men that
includes Socrates.
– The speeches are to be given in praise of Eros, god of love and desire, and a son of
Aphrodite.
– Eros is recognized as both erotic love (physical love) and especially in Plato, as a
phenomenon that is capable of inspiring deeper appreciation, and leads man to divinity.
– It still is an egocentric love: it tends toward conquering and possessing the object that
represents a value for man.
Phaedrus (370 BC)
■ a dialogue between Socrates and Phaedrus, on the topic of love.

■ Young Phaedrus attracted to a speech on romantic love recently given by the famed orator/speech-writer Lysias

■ Phaedrus makes a case that favours romantic love:

■ A man who is in love is not in control of his reason;

■ He wants to keep the beloved from the world

■ Everything seems to cause him pain

■ He can’t give an honest judgment

■ His jealousy even leads him to harm the beloved.

■ The man who is not in love, however, has no intention to keep the beloved to himself or harm; he just wants to get laid.
■ Socrates responds - The lover is inspired up towards the divine by the memory of the form of Beauty
inspired by the beautiful beloved here in the mundane realm.
■ He then narrates the famous Chariot allegory
– The tripartite nature of soul
– The charioteer drawn by two horses (‘natural union of a team of winged horses and their
charioteer’): a black one and a white one.
– These describe the three distinct aspects of the soul:
■ The Charioteer is the Intelligence – guides the person
■ The White horse is Honorable desires, beautiful and good
■ The black horse is Dishonorable desires and unruly appetites
■ The horses have wings so they draw the charioteer through the sky to gain a glimpse
of the supersensible reality.
■ Struggle between the two horses makes it difficult to the charioteer to rise enough to
get the glimpse.
■ The chariot falls to the earth as the wings of the horses withers for lack of
nourishment – soul becomes incarnated.
■ The nature of incarnation is proportional to the amount of vision it had of the super-
sensual.
■ The image of the soul in the Phaedrus to have a more balanced understanding of Plato’s views
concerning human action.
■ If the charioteer is able to control the black horse, then the person may become a seeker after that
non-sensory world that he now passionately desires as a lover and that had been latent until it was
awakened by the sight of a beautiful person.
■ If a person persists faithfully in pursuit of knowledge of what is beyond the world of senses,
eventually he or she will return there and not be reincarnated into this world of senses.
■ So for Plato, everyone gets what one loves or desires the most: sensual life in the world again and
again (and with punishment between each reincarnation) or continuous knowledge of the true
reality that gives never-ending joy.
Tripartite structure of the soul
■ The Lower, Middle and the Upper parts
■ Love is capable of assisting any part of the soul.
■ The Lowest part – the appetites that can be gratified by bodily things – (concupiscence)
Food, water, sex, wealth – enslaves the soul – always seeking more – leading to
disorderly and miserable lives. Must be guided and controlled by intelligence.
■ Middle Part – the Spirited part – needs to be guided by the mind which is the highest
part of the soul
■ The mind must know what is GOOD and how to seek it.