Marquette University e-Publications@Marquette Dissertations (2009 -) Dissertations, Theses, and Professional Projects Love's Lack: The Relationship between Poverty and Eros in Plato's Symposium Lorelle D. Lamascus Marquette University Recommended Citation Lamascus, Lorelle D., "Love's Lack: The Relationship between Poverty and Eros in Plato's Symposium" (2010). Dissertations (2009 -). Paper 71. http://epublications.marquette.edu/dissertations_mu/71 LOVE’S LACK: THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN POVERTY AND EROS IN PLATO’S SYMPOSIUM By Lorelle D. Lamascus A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School, Marquette University, In partial fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Philosophy Milwaukee, Wisconsin December 2010 ABSTRACT LOVE’S LACK: THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EROS AND POVERTY IN PLATO’S SYMPOSIUM Lorelle D. Lamascus Marquette University, 2010 This dissertation responds to a long-standing debate among scholars regarding the nature of Platonic Eros and its relation to lack. The more prominent account of Platonic Eros presents the lack of Eros as a deficiency or need experienced by the lover with respect to the object needed, lacked, or desired, so that the nature of Eros is construed as self-interested or acquisitive, subsisting only so long as the lover lacks the beloved object. This dissertation argues that such an interpretation neglects the different senses of lack present in the Symposium and presents an alternative interpretation of Eros based on the Symposium ’s presentation of Eros as the child of Poverty and Resource. Chapter one examines the origin and development of the position that Platonic Eros is acquisitive or egocentric and the influence this has had on subsequent interpretations of Plato’s thought. Chapter two argues that Diotima’s theogony of Eros that presents him as a child of Poverty and Resource is central to understanding the account of Eros propounded in her discourse. Chapter three examines the development and refinement of the concepts of lack and poverty that are offered alongside those of Eros throughout Socrates’ account of Eros in the Symposium . Chapters four and five discuss the relationship of these concepts of lack to the depiction of Eros as an intermediary and the ethical consequences of this relationship. Chapter six shows how the disposition of poverty serves as the source of the erotic ascent toward the vision of the beautiful itself. Chapter seven, drawing upon the analysis of previous chapters, argues that the reexamination of the role of poverty in the Symposium reveals that the account of Eros offered there describes a katharsis of the affective element in human beings, parallel to the katharsis of the rational element described in Plato’s Phaedo . This katharsis involves the embrace of poverty as a way of living, loving, and knowing. Thus, the poverty of Eros does not indicate a lack that is egocentric or acquisitive, but describes a kind of asceticism or spiritual discipline that is requisite for the philosophical and moral life. i ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Lorelle D. Lamascus There are many people to whom I owe thanks for their encouraging words and continued support throughout this endeavor. Among these are my sister, my parents, Kevin Gibson, Susanne Foster, James South, and Theresa Tobin. For his direction in the early stages of this project, I am indebted to Rev. John D. Jones, and for his guidance in the interpretation of Greek texts, I am indebted to Franco Trivigno. I extend my thanks to all here mentioned, to my committee, and to any I may have failed to mention here. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................................. i CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................1 A Note on Interpretation ............................................................................7 Platonic Eros in the Early Part of the Twentieth Century ........................12 Platonic Eros in the Mid- to Late-Twentieth Century ..............................19 Platonic Eros in the Mid- to Late-Twentieth Century: The Response to the Charge of Egoism ..........................................................................34 II. MYTH AND RELIGION IN THE INTERPRETATION OF EROS IN THE SYMPOSIUM ..................................................................................................39 Mythology in the Symposium ....................................................................54 III. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CONCEPT OF POVERTY: FROM DEFICIENCY TO ABUNDANCE ................................................................74 The Importance of Poverty ( πενία) in the Symposium ...............................75 The Concept of Poverty ............................................................................78 Ένδεια ......................................................................................................81 Ένδεια in the Gorgias and the Protagoras ...................................82 Ένδεια in Republic IX and the Philebus ......................................83 Ένδεια in the Symposium .............................................................87 Πενία .........................................................................................................91 Άφθονος ..................................................................................................105 Conclusions ............................................................................................107 iii IV. THE INTERMEDIACY OF EROS.............................................................110 Eros, Desire, and Wish: Establishing the Intermediacy of Eros .............112 The Structure of Eros ..............................................................................119 An Enquiry into the Senses of Intermediacy Applicable to Eros .......................................................................120 On the Diverse Ways of Being Intermediate ..........................................131 V. METAPHYSICS, MOTION, AND MORALITY .......................................149 The Metaphysical Status of Eros as Intermediate ..................................150 The Use and Work of Eros as Intermediate: The Moral Consequences of the Metaphysical Status of Eros’s Intermediacy ................................155 Χρεία and Έργον .....................................................................................161 VI. POVERTY IN THE ASCENT TO THE VISION OF BEAUTY ...............173 The Structure of Socrates’ Discourse .....................................................175 Eros, the Tripartite Soul, and Participation in Immortality ....................186 VII. ΚGθαρσις AND THE PURIFICATION OF EROS ....................................204 The Concept of Κάθαρσις in the Phaedo and the Sophist ........................205 The Method of Κάθαρσις .........................................................................210 Virtue and κάθαρσις .................................................................................213 Conclusion: The Purification of Eros ....................................................224 BIBLIOGRAPHY ...........................................................................................................230 1 CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION Plato’s treatment of Eros in the Symposium presents Eros as the child of Poverty (πενMα) and Resource ( πOρος ), and this is central to understanding the nature of Eros. The more prominent interpretation of the Symposium ’s account of Eros presents this poverty as a lack or need experienced by the lover with respect to the object needed, lacked, or desired, so that the nature of Eros is construed as self-interested or acquisitive, subsisting only so long as the lover lacks the beloved object.1 This assessment of Eros, however, does not resonate with Plato’s presentation of Eros in the Symposium or his other works in which Eros and reason are presented as properly in accord with one another The moral life and the philosophical life alike depend on properly trained or directed Eros. Indeed, in the context of the Symposium , the philosopher and a mythical personification of Eros are portrayed as poor and homeless; what this poverty ( πενMα) expresses is an appropriate detachment from transient goods and an appropriate directing of Eros towards eternal and unchanging goods, participation in which is the end or goal of the moral and philosophical lives. The poverty of Eros does not indicate a lack that is egocentric or acquisitive, desiring to possess private goods for its own pleasure; rather the poverty of Eros describes a kind of asceticism or spiritual discipline that is requisite for the philosophical and moral life. As a way and not merely a lack, Eros becomes a certain disposition in the lover that leads the lover to the Good. 1 Gregory Vlastos, “The Individual as Object of Love in Plato,” in Platonic Studies , vol. 1 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1973) 3-42; Anders Nygren, Agape and Eros, translated by Philip Watson (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1953). 2 Chapter one discusses the major interpretations of Platonic Eros from the last century, and traces the origin and development of the position that Platonic Eros is acquisitive or egocentric and the influence this has had on subsequent interpretations of Plato’s thought. Though there is a good amount of literature examining the nature of Eros, the relationship between poverty and Eros is not