Eros, Otherness, Tyranny

In several of Plato's dialogues, Socrates claims to be an expert on only one topic, love. He can claim such expertise because love, unlike justice, piety, or courage, is not so much a theme to be delineated, but is the motivating force that defines the life of philosophy. To be a philosopher is, as the etymology of the word suggests, to be a lover. But what kind of love is it that characterizes the life of philosophy, and how does it relate to other kinds of love? Specifically, what are the implications of the philosopher's love of wisdom for the realization of the interpersonal forms of attachment that are necessary for ethics and politics to be possible? James McGuirk explores this question in the present study though a close reading of Plato's Symposium and through comparative readings of Friedrich Nietzsche and Emmanuel Lvinas, in which several indictments and defences of philosophy are explored. According to McGuirk, the trial of philosophy hangs ultimately on the meaning of philosophical eros. He argues that while eros can involve impulses toward tyranny and the subjugation of otherness, it is finally understood by Plato in terms of a subtle balance, in which the acquisitiveness of eros is enframed by a more fundamental affective attunement to the Good in Being. According to this reading, eros is not only compatible with ethical and political forms of the interpersonal, it is their condition of possibility.

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Table of ContentsAcknowledgementsIntroduction1. Structure of the work2. The Argument2.1. Philosophical Eros and Will-to-Power: Tyranny and Tragedy2.2. Philosophical Eros and the Other: The Will to Knowledge and the Instrumentalization of the Other2.3. A Defence of Plato: Philosophical Eros and the Vindication of PhilosophyWholeness, Tragedy and the Hubris of Philosophy: The Speech of Aristophanes and the first Indictment of Philosophy1. Introducing Aristophanes1.1. Background and Political Affiliations1.2. Aristophanes and Plato: The Clouds of Aristophanes2. The Speech of Aristophanes2.1. Aristophanes Tragic Myth2.2. Rebellion, Punishment, Re-orientation2.3. Philosophy and Poetry2.4. Naming Eros: The Threat of Nihilism2.5. Eros Turranos and Eros Ouranos: Two Erotes or One?3. Eros, Politics and PhilosophyDefending Philosophy I: Nietzsche's Will-to-Power and Philosophy as Creative Excess1. The Problem of Nietzsche and Socrates1.1. Introducing Nietzsche1.2. The Problem of Nietzsche1.3. Nietzsche, Socrates, Plato2. Philosophy as Spiritual Sovereignty2.1. Philosophy in the Birth of Tragedy2.2. Revolutions in Nietzsche's Thought: Re-evaluating the Need for Justification2.3. The 'Yes' and the 'No' to Life: Vitalism, Eros and Will-To-Power2.4. Cultural Critique and the Transvaluation of Values3. The Place of Socrates in the Later Thought of Nietzsche3.1. Socrates as Cultural Critic3.2. Philosophical Eros: Philosophy as Refined Will-To-Power3.3. The Turn to Philosophy: Philosophy in the Tragic Age of the Greeks3.4. The Later Works and Affirmation as Self-affirmation3.5. Platonic Eros and Will-To-Power3.6. Overthrowing the Gods and Dionysian Chaos3.7. Tension in Affirmation: Ambition and the Hidden Goal of Eros4. Defending and Overcoming Socrates: Nietzsche as the Fulfilment of an Aristophanic ProphesyThe Inhumanity of Philosophical Eros: The Speech of Alcibiades and the Second Indictment of Philosophy1. Alcibiades: By Way of Introduction1.1. Alcibiades the Man1.2. Alcibiades and Socrates1.3. Alcibiades and the Symposium2. A Reading of the Speech of Alcibiades2.1. The Beginning: Alcibiades Arrives2.2. Introducing the Speech: Rival Visions of Eros and Language2.3. Portrait of a Strange Man: Socrates in Images2.4. Socratic Dualism and an Initial Accusation of Ethical Indifference2.5. Sex and Philosophy: Ascent of the Soul and Descent of the Body2.6. Socrates and the Cardinal Virtues3. Canonical Readings of the Text3.1. Gregory Vlastos: Plato's Ethical Blindspot3.2. Martha Nussbaum: Plato's Recognition of the Inhumanity of Socrates4. In Conclusion: Philosophical Eros, Dualism and OthernessDefending Philosophy 2:Desire and Dualism as the Prerequisites of Ethics in the Early Thought of Emmanuel Lévinas1. Lévinas: By Way of Introduction1.1. Lévinas and the Indictment of the Western Tradition1.2. Lévinas, Alcibiades and Plato2. Ethics as First Philosophy2.1. The Same (Le Même) and the Other (l'Autrui): Lévinas and Phenomenology2.2. The Fundamental Structures of Ethics3. Lévinasian Being: The Elemental, Sensibility and Il y a3.1. Enjoyment and the Same (Le Même): Need and Living From the Elements4. Eros and Ethics in the Early Lévinas4.1. Re-interpreting Plato's Erotic Lack: Eros and the Early Works4.2. Ambiguity, Dualism and the Relegation of Eros: Eros in Totality and Infinity5. Conclusions Based on the Early WorkEthics and Erotic Paradigms in the Later Lévinas: Towards a Redemption of Philosophy1. A Critique of Lévinas: Ontology, Chronology, Methodology1.1. Derrida's Critique1.2. A Phenomenological Paradox: Fundamental Ethics and the Pre-Ethical2. Otherwise than Being: Ethics and the Sensual3. Focal Points: Delineations of Subjectivity and Erotic Paradigms in Otherwise than Being3.1. Subjectivity and Alterity: An-archy and Gift3.2. The Erotic Paradigm Deepens: Proximity and Distance3.3. Substitution: The One for the Other and the De-centring of the Subject3.4. The Saying and the Said: Philosophy and Justice4. Concluding Remarks and Problems: Leaving Lévinas4.1. Eros, Philosophy and Ethics4.2. The il y a and the Meaning of Being: Dualism4.3. Self-Abnegation and Violence in the Unfolding of the GoodThe Speech of Socrates: Ultimate Good, Relative Goods and the Hermeneutics of Eros1. Initial Manoeuvres: Lack and Divine Origins1.1. A Dialogic Interlude: The Deficiency and Lack of Eros1.2. Diotima's First Lesson: Eros as Metaxu1.3. Diotima's Second Lesson: The Origin of Eros: Metaxu and Doubleness2. Transforming Eros: Empowerment and Creativity2.1. Transitional Language and the Ambiguity of Erotic Desire for the Good2.2. Forms of Erotic Transcending: Power and the Excess of Self3. Hermeneutic Eros and the Final Ascent: Vindicating Philosophy3.1. Hermeneutic and Heuristic Identifications of Ultimacy3.2. Birth in Beauty Revisited: Eros as Spontaneous, Generous, Joyful4. The Indictment One Last Time4.1. Aristophanes4.2. Nietzsche4.3. Alcibiades4.4. LévinasAppendix: The doctrine of eros in the Phaedrus1. Eros in the Phaedrus2. D...