Lesel Dawson
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199266128
- eISBN:
- 9780191708688
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199266128.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, 16th-century and Renaissance Literature, Women's Literature
This chapter explores the ways in which the discourse of Platonic love and erotic melancholy advance different ideas about sexuality within amorous relationships and promote incompatible gender power ...
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This chapter explores the ways in which the discourse of Platonic love and erotic melancholy advance different ideas about sexuality within amorous relationships and promote incompatible gender power hierarchies. It begins with a discussion of the construction of love according to Neoplatonisms, before turning to an examination of two plays written during the Caroline period, when the cult of Platonic love was at its height. In ᾽Tis Pity She's a Whore, Ford depicts Giovanni's incestuous love for his sister as a type of Platonic mirroring which is also a form of narcissism. Alternatively, in The Platonic Lovers Davenant uses the hazardous physical symptoms of lovesickness to challenge the Neoplatonic construction of love, promoting a notion of heterosexual desire that is physiological and sexual, rather than abstract and spiritual.Less
This chapter explores the ways in which the discourse of Platonic love and erotic melancholy advance different ideas about sexuality within amorous relationships and promote incompatible gender power hierarchies. It begins with a discussion of the construction of love according to Neoplatonisms, before turning to an examination of two plays written during the Caroline period, when the cult of Platonic love was at its height. In ᾽Tis Pity She's a Whore, Ford depicts Giovanni's incestuous love for his sister as a type of Platonic mirroring which is also a form of narcissism. Alternatively, in The Platonic Lovers Davenant uses the hazardous physical symptoms of lovesickness to challenge the Neoplatonic construction of love, promoting a notion of heterosexual desire that is physiological and sexual, rather than abstract and spiritual.
Daniel Orrells
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199236442
- eISBN:
- 9780191728549
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199236442.003.0005
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
Chapters one to three examined serious scholarly attempts to historicize ancient Greek pederasty. The historicisms of the German and British universities, however, produced graduates who developed ...
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Chapters one to three examined serious scholarly attempts to historicize ancient Greek pederasty. The historicisms of the German and British universities, however, produced graduates who developed altogether more self‐consciously rhetorical, metaphorical translations of ancient pederastic pedagogy. In the texts of Oscar Wilde, E. M. Forster and Sigmund Freud, the Greek teaching scene becomes a far more flexible model for thinking about the formation of modern masculinity in relation to ancient counterparts. In chapter four, we consider the most infamous product of Oxford Hellenism, Oscar Wilde and his courtroom speech of 1895 in defence of male love and friendship, to ask what he thought he was doing: what did Wilde mean by “Platonic love”? Could a Platonic lesson be taught outside Oxford's cloisters in a public setting? The chapter continues by examining the reverberations and resonances of Wilde's speech in his later writing, De Profundis, and in E. M. Forster's Maurice.Less
Chapters one to three examined serious scholarly attempts to historicize ancient Greek pederasty. The historicisms of the German and British universities, however, produced graduates who developed altogether more self‐consciously rhetorical, metaphorical translations of ancient pederastic pedagogy. In the texts of Oscar Wilde, E. M. Forster and Sigmund Freud, the Greek teaching scene becomes a far more flexible model for thinking about the formation of modern masculinity in relation to ancient counterparts. In chapter four, we consider the most infamous product of Oxford Hellenism, Oscar Wilde and his courtroom speech of 1895 in defence of male love and friendship, to ask what he thought he was doing: what did Wilde mean by “Platonic love”? Could a Platonic lesson be taught outside Oxford's cloisters in a public setting? The chapter continues by examining the reverberations and resonances of Wilde's speech in his later writing, De Profundis, and in E. M. Forster's Maurice.
Jeffrey Blustein
- Published in print:
- 1992
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195067996
- eISBN:
- 9780199852895
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195067996.003.0017
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
This chapter discusses love and friendship. It provides explanation of love that is directly targeted on a particular person and sets aside the love of inanimate objects, of God, of humanity in ...
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This chapter discusses love and friendship. It provides explanation of love that is directly targeted on a particular person and sets aside the love of inanimate objects, of God, of humanity in general. There is the love of a parent for a child, of a sibling for a sibling, of a friend for a friend, of a lover for a lover. Friendship in particular is neither necessary nor sufficient for love, but in close friendships the depth of the concern and care amounts to love, and the love of friends, unlike parental love, is a love that insists on equality and does not preclude sexuality. It discusses in detail the different types of personal love namely: Platonic love, romantic love, sexual love, parental love, and love of friends which is regarded as the deepest kind of friendship.Less
This chapter discusses love and friendship. It provides explanation of love that is directly targeted on a particular person and sets aside the love of inanimate objects, of God, of humanity in general. There is the love of a parent for a child, of a sibling for a sibling, of a friend for a friend, of a lover for a lover. Friendship in particular is neither necessary nor sufficient for love, but in close friendships the depth of the concern and care amounts to love, and the love of friends, unlike parental love, is a love that insists on equality and does not preclude sexuality. It discusses in detail the different types of personal love namely: Platonic love, romantic love, sexual love, parental love, and love of friends which is regarded as the deepest kind of friendship.
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780804750462
- eISBN:
- 9780804767446
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804750462.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
In De amore, Marsilio Ficino's seventh and final speech, considers the kind of love that is the “opposite” of Socratic love, a form of insanity rather than the “divine madness” praised by Plato as a ...
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In De amore, Marsilio Ficino's seventh and final speech, considers the kind of love that is the “opposite” of Socratic love, a form of insanity rather than the “divine madness” praised by Plato as a means to knowledge. Ficino insists that this “insanity” is a form of love while delineating the features of what he also calls “vulgar love.” The opening stages of the seventh speech, which purports to interpret the poem Donna me prega by Guido Cavalcanti, show Ficino's unease with the implications of the medical treatment of love-melancholy. In his speech, Ficino is indebted to Dino del Garbo's commentary but nevertheless transforms Cavalcanti's poem into a vehicle for his own version of Platonic love. In his commentary, del Garbo names this form of love amor ereos (“lovesickness”). This chapter examines the complex medical history that makes possible Ficino's commentary on love-melancholy in De amore, and shows that the medical/philosophical tradition of love-melancholy engages in complex ways with a Platonic view of love.Less
In De amore, Marsilio Ficino's seventh and final speech, considers the kind of love that is the “opposite” of Socratic love, a form of insanity rather than the “divine madness” praised by Plato as a means to knowledge. Ficino insists that this “insanity” is a form of love while delineating the features of what he also calls “vulgar love.” The opening stages of the seventh speech, which purports to interpret the poem Donna me prega by Guido Cavalcanti, show Ficino's unease with the implications of the medical treatment of love-melancholy. In his speech, Ficino is indebted to Dino del Garbo's commentary but nevertheless transforms Cavalcanti's poem into a vehicle for his own version of Platonic love. In his commentary, del Garbo names this form of love amor ereos (“lovesickness”). This chapter examines the complex medical history that makes possible Ficino's commentary on love-melancholy in De amore, and shows that the medical/philosophical tradition of love-melancholy engages in complex ways with a Platonic view of love.
Daniel Boyarin
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- March 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823226351
- eISBN:
- 9780823236718
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fso/9780823226351.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
In his celebrated study of Christian love, Anders Nygren identifies the emergence of heresy with the perversion of agape. In Plato's Symposium, the term “heavenly Eros” ...
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In his celebrated study of Christian love, Anders Nygren identifies the emergence of heresy with the perversion of agape. In Plato's Symposium, the term “heavenly Eros” occurs in the discourse of Pausanias, signifying a practice of desire that begins with physical love but ultimately transcends the physical. Yet Pausanias is not the only, or even the most privileged, speaker in the Symposium. The famous speech of Diotima, cited by Socrates, arguably lays greater claim to representing Plato's definitive views on love. Thus, in referring to “heavenly Eros” as that “of which Plato and his followers speak”, Nygren erases any difference between the Pausanian ideology of eros and that of Diotima/Socrates—the latter of which is purportedly Platonic love. This chapter argues that Nygren falsely conflates the concept of a “heavenly eros” continuous with physical sexuality, as described in Pausanius's speech, with the more strictly asceticized eroticism attributed to the prophetess Diotima and ultimately affirmed by Plato. This is a distinction overlooked by others as well, not least Michel Foucault.Less
In his celebrated study of Christian love, Anders Nygren identifies the emergence of heresy with the perversion of agape. In Plato's Symposium, the term “heavenly Eros” occurs in the discourse of Pausanias, signifying a practice of desire that begins with physical love but ultimately transcends the physical. Yet Pausanias is not the only, or even the most privileged, speaker in the Symposium. The famous speech of Diotima, cited by Socrates, arguably lays greater claim to representing Plato's definitive views on love. Thus, in referring to “heavenly Eros” as that “of which Plato and his followers speak”, Nygren erases any difference between the Pausanian ideology of eros and that of Diotima/Socrates—the latter of which is purportedly Platonic love. This chapter argues that Nygren falsely conflates the concept of a “heavenly eros” continuous with physical sexuality, as described in Pausanius's speech, with the more strictly asceticized eroticism attributed to the prophetess Diotima and ultimately affirmed by Plato. This is a distinction overlooked by others as well, not least Michel Foucault.
Adam Lee
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- March 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780198848530
- eISBN:
- 9780191882944
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198848530.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
This chapter explores the Platonism in Pater’s Gaston de Latour, which began publication in monthly instalments in 1888. Like Marius, Gaston is set in a time of religious turmoil—the religious wars ...
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This chapter explores the Platonism in Pater’s Gaston de Latour, which began publication in monthly instalments in 1888. Like Marius, Gaston is set in a time of religious turmoil—the religious wars of sixteenth-century France—and follows a single character in search of spiritual transcendence. Along the way Gaston has critical encounters with historical authors, such as Michel de Montaigne and Giordano Bruno, who enrich his understanding of Platonism. The love that seeks wholeness in Plato’s Symposium is proposed as a model for Pater’s critical engendering with historical authors. Beyond Platonic love narratives, Pater incorporates the Odyssean homecoming, employed by Neoplatonists, and the Christian narrative of desire in Song of Solomon. Gaston’s later chapters seem to engage with Oscar Wilde’s ‘The Portrait of Mr. W. H.’ concerning what Pater means by the phrase ‘lover and philosopher at once’, inspired by Plato’s Phaedrus.Less
This chapter explores the Platonism in Pater’s Gaston de Latour, which began publication in monthly instalments in 1888. Like Marius, Gaston is set in a time of religious turmoil—the religious wars of sixteenth-century France—and follows a single character in search of spiritual transcendence. Along the way Gaston has critical encounters with historical authors, such as Michel de Montaigne and Giordano Bruno, who enrich his understanding of Platonism. The love that seeks wholeness in Plato’s Symposium is proposed as a model for Pater’s critical engendering with historical authors. Beyond Platonic love narratives, Pater incorporates the Odyssean homecoming, employed by Neoplatonists, and the Christian narrative of desire in Song of Solomon. Gaston’s later chapters seem to engage with Oscar Wilde’s ‘The Portrait of Mr. W. H.’ concerning what Pater means by the phrase ‘lover and philosopher at once’, inspired by Plato’s Phaedrus.
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226811383
- eISBN:
- 9780226811376
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226811376.003.0009
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Ethical Issues and Debates
This chapter draws on recent reinterpretations of Plato's Symposium to argue for a contemporary critical reappropriation of Platonic erotic love of less powerful persons, minus its androcentrism and ...
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This chapter draws on recent reinterpretations of Plato's Symposium to argue for a contemporary critical reappropriation of Platonic erotic love of less powerful persons, minus its androcentrism and its era's sexualization of inequality and of eroticism. It theologically elaborates the reflections on desire, sin, and grace. Moreover, it addresses the contemporary recoveries of Plato's Symposium and the account of desire that has affected so much of Western thought, Christian and secular. The Symposium was nothing if not an illustration of the seduction that wise, self-possessed men work on younger men in pursuit of knowledge or pleasure. It formulated a vision of ideal erotic love from the point of view of the lover. Edward Vacek believed that hope in the genuine affirmation that comes from being loved back is normally a part of the motivation. Vacek overcame the Platonic dualism that produces a barrier between physical and spiritual eros.Less
This chapter draws on recent reinterpretations of Plato's Symposium to argue for a contemporary critical reappropriation of Platonic erotic love of less powerful persons, minus its androcentrism and its era's sexualization of inequality and of eroticism. It theologically elaborates the reflections on desire, sin, and grace. Moreover, it addresses the contemporary recoveries of Plato's Symposium and the account of desire that has affected so much of Western thought, Christian and secular. The Symposium was nothing if not an illustration of the seduction that wise, self-possessed men work on younger men in pursuit of knowledge or pleasure. It formulated a vision of ideal erotic love from the point of view of the lover. Edward Vacek believed that hope in the genuine affirmation that comes from being loved back is normally a part of the motivation. Vacek overcame the Platonic dualism that produces a barrier between physical and spiritual eros.
Adam Lee
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- March 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780198848530
- eISBN:
- 9780191882944
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198848530.003.0007
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
This chapter traces the momentum of Platonic themes in essays leading up to Plato and Platonism (1893) and explores the book as a revelation of Pater’s lifelong philosophy informing his work. The ...
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This chapter traces the momentum of Platonic themes in essays leading up to Plato and Platonism (1893) and explores the book as a revelation of Pater’s lifelong philosophy informing his work. The structure of the book is explained as representative of Oxonian Platonism without losing sight of what makes it so characteristic of Pater. The central themes of Pater’s writing are elucidated through his understanding of Platonism, particularly through The Republic. Concerned with Plato as an author, Pater explains how he seeks organization in things, States as well as persons as well as artwork, for the sake of sanity, a conservative commitment that fights against decadence. The maintenance of sanity, the reason in beauty, is sought for the sake of one’s soul in Platonic education. It is Platonic love, explained as the affinity for persons like-to-like, that enables one to attain knowledge and express oneself with authority.Less
This chapter traces the momentum of Platonic themes in essays leading up to Plato and Platonism (1893) and explores the book as a revelation of Pater’s lifelong philosophy informing his work. The structure of the book is explained as representative of Oxonian Platonism without losing sight of what makes it so characteristic of Pater. The central themes of Pater’s writing are elucidated through his understanding of Platonism, particularly through The Republic. Concerned with Plato as an author, Pater explains how he seeks organization in things, States as well as persons as well as artwork, for the sake of sanity, a conservative commitment that fights against decadence. The maintenance of sanity, the reason in beauty, is sought for the sake of one’s soul in Platonic education. It is Platonic love, explained as the affinity for persons like-to-like, that enables one to attain knowledge and express oneself with authority.
Jokha Alharthi
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- January 2022
- ISBN:
- 9781474486330
- eISBN:
- 9781399501750
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474486330.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, World Literature
This chapter discusses concepts of sexuality, marriage and chastity in Islamic discourse. These topics touch on Islamic jurisprudence as well as Islamic culture in general. The implications of ...
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This chapter discusses concepts of sexuality, marriage and chastity in Islamic discourse. These topics touch on Islamic jurisprudence as well as Islamic culture in general. The implications of chastity as understood in the stories about 'udhri poets and theories of love will be discussed, especially in the context of the 9th and 10th centuries. The problematic relationship that exists between the ‘udhri tradition and the Islamic discourse around sexuality and love will be the main focus of this chapter.Less
This chapter discusses concepts of sexuality, marriage and chastity in Islamic discourse. These topics touch on Islamic jurisprudence as well as Islamic culture in general. The implications of chastity as understood in the stories about 'udhri poets and theories of love will be discussed, especially in the context of the 9th and 10th centuries. The problematic relationship that exists between the ‘udhri tradition and the Islamic discourse around sexuality and love will be the main focus of this chapter.
Andrew J. Counter
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780198785996
- eISBN:
- 9780191827709
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198785996.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century Literature and Romanticism, European Literature
The Introduction explores the idea of a supposed ‘unrationalized coexistence’ of competing sexual and political mores under the Restoration, some holdovers from the Ancien Régime, others peculiar to ...
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The Introduction explores the idea of a supposed ‘unrationalized coexistence’ of competing sexual and political mores under the Restoration, some holdovers from the Ancien Régime, others peculiar to the new; the phrase ‘unrationalized coexistence’ is borrowed from Eve Sedgwick, but the concept is drawn from Restoration writers’ own depictions of the confused, transitional character of their society. The Introduction also examines the crucial rhetorical figure of ellipsis, which became in this period an unmistakeable means of evoking either the sexual, or the political, or both. The Introduction concludes by considering the notion of ‘Platonic love’—relationships characterized by unconsummated erotic desire—that was the most influential, though also the most contested, model of love in Restoration high art.Less
The Introduction explores the idea of a supposed ‘unrationalized coexistence’ of competing sexual and political mores under the Restoration, some holdovers from the Ancien Régime, others peculiar to the new; the phrase ‘unrationalized coexistence’ is borrowed from Eve Sedgwick, but the concept is drawn from Restoration writers’ own depictions of the confused, transitional character of their society. The Introduction also examines the crucial rhetorical figure of ellipsis, which became in this period an unmistakeable means of evoking either the sexual, or the political, or both. The Introduction concludes by considering the notion of ‘Platonic love’—relationships characterized by unconsummated erotic desire—that was the most influential, though also the most contested, model of love in Restoration high art.
Douglas Cairns
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199605507
- eISBN:
- 9780191745928
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199605507.003.0014
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval, Ancient Greek, Roman, and Early Christian Philosophy
This chapter explores the debts owed by the account of erôs in the speeches of Socrates in Plato's Phaedrus to earlier (chiefly poetic) models of the concept. Three main points are made: (i) the use ...
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This chapter explores the debts owed by the account of erôs in the speeches of Socrates in Plato's Phaedrus to earlier (chiefly poetic) models of the concept. Three main points are made: (i) the use of pre-existing models, metaphors, and metonymies of erôs highlights Plato's debt not only to erotic, but also to philosophical poetry (especially Parmenides and Empedocles); (ii) this furthers the speeches' project of creating a model of erôs that presents the erotic in terms of the metaphysical; (iii) the various poetic, religious, and philosophical models that the speeches invoke serve to present a conception of erôs that is at once highly revisionary and yet also in some respects paradoxically traditional.Less
This chapter explores the debts owed by the account of erôs in the speeches of Socrates in Plato's Phaedrus to earlier (chiefly poetic) models of the concept. Three main points are made: (i) the use of pre-existing models, metaphors, and metonymies of erôs highlights Plato's debt not only to erotic, but also to philosophical poetry (especially Parmenides and Empedocles); (ii) this furthers the speeches' project of creating a model of erôs that presents the erotic in terms of the metaphysical; (iii) the various poetic, religious, and philosophical models that the speeches invoke serve to present a conception of erôs that is at once highly revisionary and yet also in some respects paradoxically traditional.
Adam Lee
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- March 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780198848530
- eISBN:
- 9780191882944
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198848530.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
This book examines Walter Pater’s deep engagement with Platonism throughout his career, as a teacher of Plato in Oxford’s Literae Humaniores, from his earliest known essay, ‘Diaphaneitè’ (1864), to ...
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This book examines Walter Pater’s deep engagement with Platonism throughout his career, as a teacher of Plato in Oxford’s Literae Humaniores, from his earliest known essay, ‘Diaphaneitè’ (1864), to his final book, Plato and Platonism (1893), treating both his criticism and fiction, including his studies on myth. Pater is influenced by several of Plato’s dialogues, including Phaedrus, Symposium, Theaetetus, Cratylus, and The Republic, which inform his philosophy of aesthetics, history, myth, epistemology, ethics, language, and style. As a philosopher, critic, and artist, Plato embodies what it means to be an author to Pater, who imitates his creative practice from vision to expression. Through the recognition of form in matter, Pater views education as a journey to refine one’s knowledge of beauty in order to transform oneself. Platonism is a point of contact with his contemporaries, including Matthew Arnold and Oscar Wilde, offering a means to take new measure of their literary relationships. The philosophy also provides boundaries for critical encounters with figures across history, including Wordsworth, Michelangelo and Pico della Mirandola in The Renaissance (1873), Marcus Aurelius and Apuleius in Marius the Epicurean (1885), and Montaigne and Giordano Bruno in Gaston de Latour (1896). In the manner Platonism holds that soul or mind is the essence of a person, Pater’s criticism seeks the mind of the author as an affinity, so that his writing enacts Platonic love.Less
This book examines Walter Pater’s deep engagement with Platonism throughout his career, as a teacher of Plato in Oxford’s Literae Humaniores, from his earliest known essay, ‘Diaphaneitè’ (1864), to his final book, Plato and Platonism (1893), treating both his criticism and fiction, including his studies on myth. Pater is influenced by several of Plato’s dialogues, including Phaedrus, Symposium, Theaetetus, Cratylus, and The Republic, which inform his philosophy of aesthetics, history, myth, epistemology, ethics, language, and style. As a philosopher, critic, and artist, Plato embodies what it means to be an author to Pater, who imitates his creative practice from vision to expression. Through the recognition of form in matter, Pater views education as a journey to refine one’s knowledge of beauty in order to transform oneself. Platonism is a point of contact with his contemporaries, including Matthew Arnold and Oscar Wilde, offering a means to take new measure of their literary relationships. The philosophy also provides boundaries for critical encounters with figures across history, including Wordsworth, Michelangelo and Pico della Mirandola in The Renaissance (1873), Marcus Aurelius and Apuleius in Marius the Epicurean (1885), and Montaigne and Giordano Bruno in Gaston de Latour (1896). In the manner Platonism holds that soul or mind is the essence of a person, Pater’s criticism seeks the mind of the author as an affinity, so that his writing enacts Platonic love.