The Guise of the Beautiful: Symposium 204d ff

Phronesis 65 (2):129-152 (2019)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

A crux of Plato’s Symposium is how beauty relates to the good. Diotima distinguishes beauty from the good, I show, to explain how erotic pursuits are characteristically ambivalent and opaque. Human beings pursue beauty without knowing why or thinking it good; yet they are rational, if aiming at happiness. Central to this reconstruction is a passage widely taken to show that beauty either coincides with the good or demands disinterested admiration. It shows rather that what one loves as beautiful does not appear good, a proposal with ramifications for ethical psychology.

Other Versions

No versions found

Similar books and articles

Beauty and Utility in Kant’s Aesthetics: The Origins of Adherent Beauty.Robert R. Clewis - 2018 - Journal of the History of Philosophy 56 (2):305-335.
Bondade e beleza em Platão.Nicholas Riegel - 2014 - Archai: Revista de Estudos Sobre as Origens Do Pensamento Ocidental 12:143-154.
St. Thomas Aquinas on Beauty.Albert Chao - 2005 - Philosophy and Culture 32 (5):165-170.
Colloquium 1 How Good is that Thing Called Love? The Volatility of erōs in Plato’s Symposium.Vasilis Politis - 2016 - Proceedings of the Boston Area Colloquium of Ancient Philosophy 31 (1):1-34.
The significance of Plato's notions of beauty and pleasure in the philosophy of Kant.Jennifer A. McMahon - 2007 - Greek Research in Australia: Proceedings of the Biennial Conference of Greek Studies 2005 6:27-34.
Plato and the dangerous pleasures of poikilia.Jonathan Fine - 2021 - Classical Quarterly 71 (1):152-169.

Analytics

Added to PP
2019-10-17

Downloads
1,561 (#10,517)

6 months
307 (#7,524)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Jonathan Fine
Georgetown University

References found in this work

Intention.G. E. M. Anscombe - 1957 - Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
The Sovereignty of Good.Iris Murdoch - 1970 - New York,: Routledge.
Intention.P. L. Heath - 1960 - Philosophical Quarterly 10 (40):281.

View all 39 references / Add more references