The Poverty of Eros in Plato's Symposium - (Bloomsbury Studies in Ancient Philosophy) by Lorelle D Lamascus (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

The Poverty of Eros in Plato's Symposium offers an innovative new approach towards Eros and the concept of Eros in the Symposium. Lorelle D. Lamascus argues that Plato's depiction of Eros as the child of Poverty (penia) and Resource (poros) is central to understanding the nature of love. Eros is traditionally seen as self-interested or acquisitive, but this book argues instead that Eros and reason are properly in accord with one another. The moral life and the philosophical life alike depend upon properly trained and directed Eros.

Lamascus demonstrates that the presentation of the nature of Poverty is essential to the nature of Eros in the Symposium, doing this through in-depth discussion of the major twentieth century interpretations of Platonic Eros. The book shows that poverty provides an appropriate directing of Eros towards eternal and unchanging goods (and away from an age geared towards material items and wealth), and thus that Plato's mythical treatment of Eros in the Symposium lays the groundwork for understanding the soul's embrace of poverty as a way of living, loving, and knowing.

Review Quotes

This book goes a long way toward correcting widespread, eisegetically influenced, misreadings of Plato and in particular, misreadings of his use of myth and of his understanding of eros. Lamascus's focus on the relationship of poverty to eros and its interrelationship with eros's role in seeking of the good and beautiful manifest the degree to which the intellect can grasp man's nature as ordered to the infinite without possessing it in his nature as a creature. Poverty of Eros in Plato's Symposium is a must read for anyone interested in Plato, classical philosophy, or indeed, anyone interested in the phenomenology of the human person.

This book offers interesting insights and sheds some new light on this much read text. It should find its way into university libraries.
Classics for All

About the Author

Lorelle D. Lamascus is Visiting Assistant Professor of Philosophy at St. Mary's University, USA.