Plato flashcards

When was plato alive?

428–423 BC, died 348/347 BC

Just say he was around in the 4th century bc

Where did he live

Athens

What is pederasty?

a socially acknowledged relationship between an older male (the erastes) and a younger male (the eromenos) usually in his teens

ermenos?

“beloved”

often 12-17

erastes?

Older male/lover

often over 30

What is the symposium?

a philosophical dialogue that revolves around a banquet where various guests take turns delivering speeches in praise of Love. Notable guests include socrates and alcibidies

What does Pausanias say about relations

There are two types of love.

pandemian love (common) and uranian love (heavenly)

Common/pendemian love

does not deserve to be praised.

Interested in obtaining physical pleasures, seeks immediate satisfaction of lust

Uranian/Heavenly

only attracted by the male sex

An erastes who is concerned with ‘Heavenly Love’ will not pursue a boy who is too young to make a rational decision about the relationship they are about to enter.

who was at the symposium?

Socrates, the playwright Aristophanes, the poet Agathon the physician Eryximachus, Pausanias, and Phaedrus

who crashes the symposium?

alcibiades

what year did socrates die?

executed in 399 BC

for “corrupting the youth”

what did socrates spend his life doing?

Asked athenians question and answer that would lead to an acceptable definintion of conception

(basically homeless)

who was one of socrates’s pupils?

Plato saurus rex

what did socrates view philosophy as?

The pursuit of definitions

often moral concepts

what is a “form” for Plato

the physical world is not truly "real," but a world of passing shadows, while the true reality consists of abstract, perfect, unchanging, and eternal concepts called "Forms"

platos most important saying? MUST REMEMBER FOR EXAMS

Love is the desire for the perpetual (never-ending) possession of what is good

what is the background of the symposium?

hosted by agathon during the peloponnesian war just before the disastrous sicilian invasion that was preached heavily by alcabidies

what does phaedrus praise love for

the greatest benefits it can bestow on us

has the power to make both the erastes and eromenos morally enhanced

what two places are used as examples for pandemian eros by puasainias?

Sparta-pederasty is accepted by the laws,to straightforward to be uranian

Ionia and persia,condems pederasty,this is due to the oppresive and dictoral natures of these place

what place is praised by pausanias for uranian love?

Athens,eros has a clear and notable purpose to it,subject lovers to a thorough test

who is Aristophanes?

comic playwright (so his speech is amusing)

What is aristophanes myth about

In the past there was three genders,male female and androgynous(intersex)

They were spherical in shape (four legs and hands and two genitals)

Why did the gods (Zeus) punish the original humans? (Aristophanes)

The OG humans were very powerful,fast and strong(due to multiple limbs)

They tried to attack the gods and loose.

What was Zeus’ punishment to the OG humans?

He split them in two to make them weaker

This left them how we look now

As a result of zeus splitting up OG humans they?

They each yearned for their other halfs,they would throw their arms around each other and die because they could not be fully together

Zeus then did what to these OG split in half humans because he felt pity?

He moved their genital to the front (penis) and created the act of sex;

This created babies to combat death of humans and satisfied thier longing for each other

Aristophanes explains homsexuality and hetro how?

As what part of thier other half a human had

for example Lesbians were two women halves

The most desireable one was the male male halve-seen as most manly

Aristophanes overall thinks? THIS IS AN OVERALL RECAP

Love(eros) is the guiding force that leads us to pursue the true nature of humanity which is wholeness

-only thing that makes us truly happy

Phaedrus dialogue by Plato?

Plato argues for the immortality of the human soul and its tripartite

What is the phaedrus analogy?

“In my own analogy a , soul is like an organic whole made up of a charioteer and his team of horses”

White horse in plato’s phaedrus analogy?

represents the spirited part of the soul

-the desire each of us has for glory and honour

the black horse in platos phaedrus analogy?

represents the appetitive part of the human soul

the craving for sensual gratification

how are the black and white horse described?

white horse-clean and goodlooking,”ally of true glory”

black horse-crooked and bloodshot eyes,”scarcely to be controlled

The charioteer in phaedrus analogy?

represents human rationality

has a considerableSo job in controlling the chariot

Platos republic?

Another plato work the features socrates as the main character

Socrates is used to paint the picture of a perfectly just society-Kallipolis

What does socrates say about sex in republic?

that it is the greatest and most frenzied of the pleasure

sex is fundamentally incompatible with any kind of good