Symposium: Eros And The Philosopher

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they don't know. This paper will make an attempt to explain the statement by further exploring the speech of Diotima as well as looking into the speech of Socrates in the Apology.
In order to answer the question of how the philosopher in Socratic ignorance is like the true lover, the terms that will be used need to be defined. For the purpose of this paper Socratic ignorance will be understood as knowing what one does not know or lack. Furthermore, the true lover will be defined as one who has reached the final step of Diotima's "Ladder of Love" ( 210A-212B) or has given birth to true virtue and nurtured it.
Eros, as said by Diotima, is the son of Poros and Penia. The story goes that the gods held a celebration for the birth of Aphrodite, Poros got drunk and went to the garden of Zeus to sleep. Penia came to the party begging as she normally does and saw that Poros was in a compromising position. She schemed up a plan to relieve her of her lack of resources: get a child ...

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to the idea of Eros as both having and not having. The example Diotima gives explains this concept with clarity. "...not only does one piece of knowledge come to be in us while another passes away and that we are never the same even in the respect of our knowledge, but that every piece of knowledge has the same fate."(207E-208A) The love that we feel for someone or something changes throughout our life. On any given day we may feel strongly about our love, on others we won't even know it exists. This is the idea of Eros as both having and not having. We may not feel that love is there, but we know it is. In one respect love is there, but it another it isn't.
In the same respect ...

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