Lysis.
Beautiful Letters| N° d'inventaire | 3586 |
| Format | 11 x 18 |
| Détails | 74 p., paperback. |
| Publication | Paris, 1999 |
| Etat | Nine |
| ISBN | 9782251799407 |
Bilingual collection. Young adolescents question Socrates: what exactly is love? How should we conquer the one we love and get them to love us in return? To this amorous, erotic question, Socrates gives a somewhat roundabout answer: we must, he says, first inquire about the definition of friendship (philia). Lysis is indeed the first philosophical treatise to firmly establish the ethical importance of friendship; it is also the one that seems to deprive the friendly relationship of its autonomy and intimacy. Far from being simply a relationship of mutual affection, free from any calculation of interest, friendship according to Plato is a non-reciprocal and interested desire. This is because there is something in the beloved that we desire for ourselves, something that we wish to appropriate and that pushes us towards them: the good. This is the equivocal lesson of the Lysis: there is an advantageous use of the beloved, and friendship is a transformation of the self.
Bilingual collection. Young adolescents question Socrates: what exactly is love? How should we conquer the one we love and get them to love us in return? To this amorous, erotic question, Socrates gives a somewhat roundabout answer: we must, he says, first inquire about the definition of friendship (philia). Lysis is indeed the first philosophical treatise to firmly establish the ethical importance of friendship; it is also the one that seems to deprive the friendly relationship of its autonomy and intimacy. Far from being simply a relationship of mutual affection, free from any calculation of interest, friendship according to Plato is a non-reciprocal and interested desire. This is because there is something in the beloved that we desire for ourselves, something that we wish to appropriate and that pushes us towards them: the good. This is the equivocal lesson of the Lysis: there is an advantageous use of the beloved, and friendship is a transformation of the self.