David Wolfsdorf
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195327328
- eISBN:
- 9780199870646
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195327328.003.0002
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Ancient Greek, Roman, and Early Christian Philosophy
This chapter explains how arguments in Meno, Protagoras, and Lysis present a coherent conception of desire. Furthermore, it is argued that the much discussed passage at Gorgias 466–68 is ...
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This chapter explains how arguments in Meno, Protagoras, and Lysis present a coherent conception of desire. Furthermore, it is argued that the much discussed passage at Gorgias 466–68 is hermeneutically insignificant for the early dialogues' conception of desire. Finally, the chapter examines salient forms of antiphilosophical desire among the texts: philotimia (love of honor) and philhêdonia (love of pleasure).Less
This chapter explains how arguments in Meno, Protagoras, and Lysis present a coherent conception of desire. Furthermore, it is argued that the much discussed passage at Gorgias 466–68 is hermeneutically insignificant for the early dialogues' conception of desire. Finally, the chapter examines salient forms of antiphilosophical desire among the texts: philotimia (love of honor) and philhêdonia (love of pleasure).
Philip A. Stadter
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- December 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780198718338
- eISBN:
- 9780191787638
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198718338.003.0015
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter singles out three men from the second century AD who exalted the ideal of the philosopher ruler, and who themselves were honoured as philosophers: Plutarch, Arrian, and Marcus Aurelius. ...
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This chapter singles out three men from the second century AD who exalted the ideal of the philosopher ruler, and who themselves were honoured as philosophers: Plutarch, Arrian, and Marcus Aurelius. Their ambitions clearly combined the abstract and the practical, a desire to do what was right and noble and to be honoured for doing so. Yet that pursuit of honour, that philotimia, gave birth to inner tensions and contradictory desires that tended to destabilize their philosophic world-view. In his Meditations, Marcus Aurelius shows that he was troubled by a desire for fame which he knew to be useless, and by the emptiness of death: he longed for a guarantee that the gods would bless him after death and his fame would continue. Arrian too was driven by a desire for glory, while hoping to benefit others. Plutarch’s ambition was to accept Plato’s challenge and educate the political elite, from which he too hoped to win honour.Less
This chapter singles out three men from the second century AD who exalted the ideal of the philosopher ruler, and who themselves were honoured as philosophers: Plutarch, Arrian, and Marcus Aurelius. Their ambitions clearly combined the abstract and the practical, a desire to do what was right and noble and to be honoured for doing so. Yet that pursuit of honour, that philotimia, gave birth to inner tensions and contradictory desires that tended to destabilize their philosophic world-view. In his Meditations, Marcus Aurelius shows that he was troubled by a desire for fame which he knew to be useless, and by the emptiness of death: he longed for a guarantee that the gods would bless him after death and his fame would continue. Arrian too was driven by a desire for glory, while hoping to benefit others. Plutarch’s ambition was to accept Plato’s challenge and educate the political elite, from which he too hoped to win honour.
