Loading...
Medical Moderation in Plato's Symposium
Brill, Sara A.
Brill, Sara A.
Author(s)
Author(s) (Additional)
Illustrator(s)
Producer(s)
Contributor(s)
Contributor(s) (Other)
Editor(s)
Advisor(s)
Contact(s)
Data Collector(s)
Keywords
GE Subjects
Collections
Files
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Journal Issue
Online Access
Abstract
Historically, interpretations of Eryximachus' character in the Symposium have risen and fallen with an author's interpretation of Plato's position on technē. For Werner Jaeger, for instance, Eryximachus' speech falls into place with Plato's frequent use of medicine as a metaphor for his 'ethical science'.[1] This interpretation does of course assume that Plato has an 'ethical science'. Stanley Rosen, rejecting this assumption, reads the sketch as illustrating the necessity of maintaining a critical stance toward medicine and toward the tendency for technical over-specialization of which, Rosen claims, medicine is the epitome.[2] The view, shared by both Jaeger and Rosen, that Plato sketches his Eryximachus as representative of the medical art and uses medicine as a paradigm for technē is at least as old as Ficino[3] and is nearly ubiquitous in contemporary scholarship on the Symposium, even amongst scholars who otherwise sharply disagree about the content and significance of Eryximachus' speech.[4]
Note(s)
Topic
Type
Article
Date
2006
Identifier
ISBN
DOI
Copyright/License
With permission of the license/copyright holder