| In this dissertation, I trace the relations that Plato portrays among eros, philia, and philosophy. I address three questions. The first concerns the relationship between eros and philia : how are they related to one another? Plato himself suggests this approach through constantly interweaving them, but modern scholarship has largely missed this. Chapter 2 explores this modern scholarship. In chapters 3 and 4, I examine Plato's representation of eros and philia in Lysis and Phaedrus, where we find eros to be repeatedly framed in terms of its relation to philia, and vice versa, so that to define these terms and their relationship to one another in a fixed way would be to miss precisely what Plato finds most interesting about them.; My second question concerns the role of eros and philia: what can we learn about them by noticing not only what is said about them in the dialogues, but also how they function within the dynamics of the philosophical endeavor? Socrates' peculiar understanding and practice of eros and philia direct him to his interlocutors and determine the ways in which he conducts himself toward them. Eros and philia, for Plato, draw people into philosophizing together in a profoundly unsettled and unsettling experience of the dynamic, transcendent character of desire.; My third question concerns the consequences of eros and philia for what philosophy achieves: what imprint do they leave on people's conceptual structures and practical orientations? Socrates frequently reveals that his interlocutors' fixed, static self-understanding is rooted in a set of metaphysical assumptions that interpret reality itself in a rigid, polarized way. Socrates ruthlessly points out the metaphysical puzzles that result from such rigid categorizations, and suggests dynamically conceived alternatives, repeatedly returning to a vision of reality in which those bound together by eros and philia experience this (if they understand and practice correctly) as belonging together in shared striving---striving for what is ultimately akin to all who strive in this way. |
