PHL243H1 Chapter Notes -Agathon, Eryximachus, Cardinal Virtues
Document Summary
Phaedrus says love is one of the oldest of the gods and does the most to promote virtue in people. Pausanias draws a distinction between common love, which involves simple, mindless desire, and heavenly love, which always takes place between a man and a boy. In the case of heavenly love, the loved one sexually gratifies the man in exchange for education in wisdom and virtue. Eryximachus suggests that love promotes moderation and orderliness, and can be found outside human interaction in music, medicine, etc. Aristophanes draws a myth that says we were once all twice the people we are now, but our threat to the gods prompted zeus to cut us in half. Ever since, we have wandered the earth looking for our other half so we can rejoin with it and become whole. Agathon says love is young, beautiful, sensitive, and wise. He sees love as responsible for planting virtues in us.
