THE EROTIC SOUL AND ITS MOVEMENT TOWARDS THE BEAUTIFUL AND THE GOOD

Abstract

In this paper I shall analyze the relationships that there are between three platonic dialogues: "Lysis", "Sympoium" and "Republic". In the first dialogue I study the problematic character of its conclusion accordin to which "friendship itself", considered as the final end of human life, has a radically diverse nature in relation to the othe things that we desire as means to achieve this final end. Given the dificulties that "Lysis" poses, I believe that a number of central theses in "Symposium" can be considered as an attempt of providing a solution to them. Along this discusion I underline the idea that the main problem of "Symposium" is to explain how the human soul moves through the hierarchy of beautiful objects until the contemplation of Beautiful itself. In "Republic", especially Books VI and VII, Plato gives us a more sophisticated but unsatisfactory theory about the soul's capacity of ascending up the scale of being and of objects of knowledge.