Plato's Erotic World: From Cosmic Origins To Human Death

Plato's entire fictive world is permeated with philosophical concern for eros, well beyond the so-called erotic dialogues. Several metaphysical, epistemological, and cosmological conversations - Timaeus, Cratylus, Parmenides, Theaetetus, and Phaedo - demonstrate that eros lies at the root of the human condition and that properly guided eros is the essence of a life well lived. This book presents a holistic vision of eros, beginning with the presence of eros at the origin of the cosmos and the human soul, surveying four types of human self-cultivation aimed at good guidance of eros, and concluding with human death as a return to our origins. The book challenges conventional wisdom regarding the "erotic dialogues" and demonstrates that Plato's world is erotic from beginning to end: the human soul is primordially erotic and the well cultivated erotic soul can best remember and return to its origins, its lifelong erotic desire. 9781107423572 1107423570 0 Philosophy NOT_MATURE http://books.google.com/books/content?id=aJzZoAEACAAJ&printsec=frontcover&img=1&zoom=5&source=gbs_api en

• • Author: Jill Gordon
• • Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• • Publication Date: Nov 27, 2014
• • Number of Pages: 254 pages
• • Language: English
• • Binding: Paperback
• • ISBN-10: 1107423570
• • ISBN-13: 9781107423572