Skip to content
Carmelics
TopicsThinkersChangesContributorsLoading account…

    Carmelics

    A reasoning platform. Break down any belief into clear reasons, explore both sides, and weigh the evidence honestly.

    Navigate

    • Topics
    • Search
    • Recent Changes
    • Contribute
    • How It Works
    • Glossary
    • Thinkers
    • Contributors
    • About
    • Statistics
    • Terms
    • Privacy

    Database

    Statements
    —
    Perspectives
    —
    Topics
    —

    Press ? for keyboard shortcuts

    LoyalLoyalJusticeJustice
    Made withinDC&Austin
    Statements
    321,452
    Perspectives
    108,905
    Topics
    42
    Home/Original/inverse
    See Original
    Inverse View

    It is not the case that Diotima's account of love is not a general theory about all love, but specifically a story about correct or successful love.

    ?Set your confidence on the premises below to see your aggregate.

    Reasons For

    2 perspectives
    Reason for 1 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Diotima's ladder culminates in the Form of Beauty itself, a metaphysical universal that transcends any particular erotic relationship or practice.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 2.A theory whose endpoint is an absolute, eternal Form logically encompasses all instances of love as deficient approximations, not merely 'correct' cases.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 3.Gregory Vlastos argued in 'The Individual as Object of Love in Plato' that Diotima's ascent systematically displaces particular loves, implying a comprehensive normative ontology of all love, not a subset.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    Reason for 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.The claim conflates prescriptive scope with descriptive scope: a theory can be prescriptive about all love while describing only the successful path.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 2.Alcibiades and the symposiasts failing to ascend confirms the theory's universal diagnostic reach—their love is failed eros, not a different kind outside the theory's domain.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 3.Martha Nussbaum in 'The Fragility of Goodness' explicitly treats Diotima's account as a general theory of eros that pathologizes all particular attachment, not merely a guide for the initiated.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.Alcibiades' love for Socrates has not led him to love the beautiful itself, which would refute a general theory.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 2.None of the other symposiasts have been led to love the beautiful itself by their love, which would also refute a general theory.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 3.Diotima explicitly frames her account as being about 'loving boys correctly' (to orthôs paiderastein) at 211b5–6.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    Next step

    Based on where you are in your exploration

    Strongest counterpoint
    Explore the most compelling reason on the other side.