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    Carmelics

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    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 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.

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

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
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    • 1.Diotima addresses a specific spiritual elite; Plato may not intend this ascent as normative for all lovers or all forms of love across society.
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    • 2.The ascent describes one possible path to understanding love, not necessarily a claim that particular loves must be systematically eliminated for all people.
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    • 3.Vlastos risks over-interpreting silence: Plato never explicitly states that ordinary particular love becomes illegitimate once one glimpses the Form of Beauty.
      ?

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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.Diotima's ladder explicitly instructs the lover to move from one beautiful body to all bodies, suggesting particular attachments are stages to transcend, not endpoints.
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      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 2.If Plato intended the ascent as merely optional spiritual enrichment, he would not structure it as a necessary progression. The prescriptive language indicates universal normative force.
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    • 3.The final vision of Beauty itself renders all particular instantiations derivative and subordinate, implying they cannot remain legitimate loci of love in a comprehensive system.
      ?

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