A paideia no diálogo O banquete, de Platão: a construção de um elo entre eros, o procedimento paidêutico e a busca pela virtude

Abstract

There is a train of thought in The Symposium that demystifies and reveals eros, after long rational effort and exigent philosophical labor. Starting from mythical attributes, Plato operates with a whole range of imagens and conceptions that were in vogue at his time. It is necessary for the dialogue to occur among several participants for the different ideas to surface. Overlapping one another, contradiction arises in the logos. From this contradiction of notions, Plato creates the suitable environment to separate opinion from knowledge, thus presenting the result to which he had committed at the beginning of the path: the truth about eros. Plato leads the reader on this journey based on the use of reason while aiming for definition and knowledge of an object’s essence. In this environment of logos, of grounding arguments and of a journey that results in the contemplation of eros’ essence, we ask ourselves: is it possible for there to be a pedagogic proposal – paideutic – alongside all this transformation operating in the dialogue The Symposium? Is it possible, with Plato’s erotic theory, to learn how to learn? These are the main questions behind this research