Platonic Love and Colorado Love: The Relevance of Ancient Greek Norms to Modern Sexual Controversies
01 Jan 1996-pp 168
About: The article was published on 1996-01-01 and is currently open access. It has received 5 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Platonic love & Philosophy of love.
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TL;DR: The authors identify an implicit sense of aidōs in the Laws: reverence for the law-bound polity as a fragile whole, but offer affective support for law's rule that is less vulnerable to shame.
Abstract: Political commentators claim that the rule of law relies, in part, on those bound by law having a sense of shame. I elucidate shame’s underlying structure and its role in law’s rule through a study of aidōs in Plato’s Laws and Phaedrus. The Greek aidōs names a feeling in which one pulls back from violating a limit. It signifies shame, but also reverence, awe, and modesty. I argue that aidōs is an affect in which we pause before limits and are invited to a perception of the whole, whether it be our lives or the polity or the cosmos, which animates and is constituted by those limits. I then identify an implicit sense of aidōs in the Laws: reverence for the law-bound polity as a fragile whole. Such reverence shares shame’s bare structure, but offers affective support for law’s rule that is less vulnerable to shame’s moralizing and exclusionary effects.
9 citations
TL;DR: In this article , the role of memory in formulating context, its weaponisation, and the misuse of published information is explored as a means of seeking insight into digital age civic issues.
Abstract: Plato’s story of Theuth and Thamus from the Phaedrus is explored as a means of seeking insight into digital age civic issues. Similar civic challenges in the digital age to those faced by Plato’s contemporaries are observed, including the role of memory in formulating context, its weaponisation, and the misuse of published information. Consideration is given to the potential lessons that can be observed from Plato’s story with the aim of providing understanding of, and approaches to, challenges in digital age civic life through law, technological intervention, and education.
3 citations
Dissertation•
01 Jan 2001
TL;DR: Dmitrenko as discussed by the authors argued that natural law as espoused by John Finnis and his contemporaries, and Ronald Dworkin's Liberal Equality are tools used by legislators and judges when considering the situation of lesbians and gay men.
Abstract: Natural Law or Liberrillsm? Gay Rights in the New Eastern Europe Alexander Dmitrenko Master of Laws Degree Faculty of Law University of Toronto 200 1 This paper endeavours to chart a course for the advancement of gay and lesbian rights in the newly formed democracies of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). At the current time, most if not al1 CEE countries have decriminalized sodomy. The question remains then where should they go fi-om here? The varying situations in western democracies in Europe, North Arnenca, Southem Afnca and Australasia are discussed, and put forward as possible models for implementation in CEE. As part of the ongoing debate about the relationship between morality and law, two legal theones, Natural Law as espoused by John Finnis and his contemporaries, and Ronald Dworkin's Liberal Equality are cornpared and contrasted as tools used by legislators and judges when considering the situation of lesbians and gay men. Liberalism and proportionality are shown to be the preferred philosophy to be followed for the continued advancement of gay and lesbian rights.
2 citations
TL;DR: In his professional life, Richard Posner is addressed as “Your Honor,” inasmuch as he is Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: In his professional life, Richard Posner is addressed as “Your Honor,” inasmuch as he is Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. He is also a senior lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School. Finally, he is a prolific author of books and articles in scholarly journals in which he expounds at length and with copious footnotes his particular views of jurisprudence and public policy. One of his frequent intellectual adversaries, legal philosopher Ronald Dworkin, wryly described Judge Posner as “the lazy judge who writes a book before breakfast, decides several cases before noon, teaches all afternoon at the Chicago Law School, and performs brain surgery after dinner.”
1 citations
17 May 2011
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors analyze the unique social, political, educational, and moral facets of pederasty without obfuscation from moral principles of modern society, and conclude that pederastic relations between two men are a social, erotic, and didactic practice uniquely integrated into both ancient Greek culture and its education system.
Abstract: The topic matter of this paper deals with the ethics of love and pederasty in ancient Greece. It begins with a basic overview of pederasty in ancient Greece, focusing on its history, practices, ethical implications, and role in the Greek education system. It continues with a discussion and analysis of Plato’s Symposium, which is well-known for its series of speeches on the subject of love (eros). The essay continues with a discussion of various ethical controversies surrounding pederasty and ends with an overview of various modern manifestations of pederasty and their comparisons to pedophilia. It is important to keep in mind that the discussion of pederasty is often complicated by 21-century moral standards, which are undoubtedly different from those in existence during the times of ancient Greek pederasty. It is thus my goal to analyze the unique social, political, educational, and moral facets of pederasty without obfuscation from moral principles of modern society. Also, it is worth mentioning that the term “homosexuality” is used throughout the paper strictly to describe pederastic relations between two men, rather than in the post-Freudian sense in which “homosexuality” refers to a more personal or cultural identity. Historical and cultural analysis of pederasty shows that it is starkly different from pedophilia, to which it is frequently compared, but instead is a unique social, erotic, and didactic practice uniquely integrated into both ancient Greek culture and its education system.
1 citations
References
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Book•
21 Oct 2002TL;DR: Eros and Polis examines how and why Greek theorists treated political passions as erotic. as mentioned in this paper examines the relationship between erotic love and political association. But it does not consider the relationship among individuals.
Abstract: Eros and Polis examines how and why Greek theorists treated political passions as erotic. Because of the tiny size of ancient Greek cities, contemporary theory and ideology could conceive of entire communities based on desire. A recurrent aspiration was to transform the polity into one great household that would bind the citizens together through ties of mutual affection. In this study, Paul Ludwig evaluates sexuality, love and civic friendship as sources of political attachment and as bonds of political association. Studying the ancient view of eros recovers a way of looking at political phenomena that provides a bridge, missing in modern thought, between the private and public spheres, between erotic love and civic commitment. Ludwig's study thus has important implications for the theoretical foundations of community.
82 citations
05 Sep 2013
TL;DR: In this paper, an international group of experts including Gloria Ferrari, Fritz Graf and Bruce Lincoln, critique many of these past studies, and challenge strongly the tradition of privileging the concept of initiation as a tool for studying social performances and literary texts, in which changes in status or group membership occur in unusual ways.
Abstract: Scholars of classical history and literature have for more than a century accepted 'initiation' as a tool for understanding a variety of obscure rituals and myths, ranging from the ancient Greek wedding and adolescent haircutting rituals to initiatory motifs or structures in Greek myth, comedy and tragedy. In this books an international group of experts including Gloria Ferrari, Fritz Graf and Bruce Lincoln, critique many of these past studies, and challenge strongly the tradition of privileging the concept of initiation as a tool for studying social performances and literary texts, in which changes in status or group membership occur in unusual ways. These new modes of research mark an important turning point in the modern study of the religion and myths of ancient Greece and Rome, making this a valuable collection across a number of classical subjects.
62 citations
TL;DR: This essay historically explores philosophical views about the nature and significance of human sexuality, starting with the Ancient Greeks and ending with late 20th-century Western philosophy.
Abstract: This essay historically explores philosophical views about the nature and significance of human sexuality, starting with the Ancient Greeks and ending with late 20th-century Western philosophy. Imp...
31 citations
TL;DR: The failure of legal sociologists to borrow theoretical and empirical tools from sociologically minded economists such as Gary Becker is especially regrettable, and may be due to inaccurate perceptions of the political valence of economic analysis of law, sociology's traditional skepticism about the knowledge claims of other disciplines, professional envy, and misunderstanding of the economists' conception of rational choice.
Abstract: The sociology of law appears to be a weak field in the United States, in comparison to other indisciplinary fields of legal study, notably economic analysis of law. Although American legal sociologists have done important empirical work, particularly on the litigation process and on the legal profession, the focus of American sociology of law has been narrow, theoretically limited, and, empirically, limited in both scope and method. These deficiencies may reflect the methodological limitations of Max Weber, the most influential figure in the history of sociology in general and sociology of law in particular. The failure of legal sociologists to borrow theoretical and empirical tools from sociologically minded economists such as Gary Becker is especially regrettable, and may be due to inaccurate perceptions of the political valence of economic analysis of law, sociology's traditional skepticism about the knowledge claims of other disciplines, professional envy, and misunderstanding of the economists' conception of rational choice.
24 citations
Book•
01 Jan 2005
TL;DR: Acknowledgements Theory and Modern Scholarship Theories Theories List of Illustrations Sex in Antiquity A - Z Ancient Sources Cited Works of Art Cited Bibliography as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Terminology Note to Readers Acknowledgements Theory and Modern Scholarship Theories List of Illustrations Sex in Antiquity A - Z Ancient Sources Cited Works of Art Cited Bibliography
24 citations