Bloomsbury The Poverty of Eros in Platos Symposium (Bloomsbury Studies in Ancient Philosophy)

The Poverty of Eros in Platos 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 Platos mythical treatment of Eros in the Symposium lays the groundwork for understanding the souls embrace of poverty as a way of living, loving, and knowing. Review 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. Lamascuss focus on the relationship of poverty to eros and its interrelationship with eross 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 Platos Symposium is a must read for anyone interested in Plato, classical philosophy, or indeed, anyone interested in the phenomenology of the human person. --David H. Delaney, Director and Senior Fellow, Mother of the Americas Institute, USA About the Author Lorelle D. Lamascus is Visiting Assistant Professor of Philosophy at St. Marys University, USA.