Friends and Lovers in the Symposium: Plato on Tradition
Friends and Lovers in the Symposium: Plato on Tradition
This chapter considers Erasmus's claims about the commonality found in Pythagorean, Platonic, and Christian philosophy. It closely examines the Platonic and Pythagorean ideas that define the Adages as a literary project. Among these ideas are those epitomized in the opening adage: friendship and property. Also among them is the idea of tradition. Erasmus distinguishes his own thinking about tradition, at least in the Adages, from that of such early Fathers of the Church as Origen, Tertullian, Jerome, and Augustine. As this chapter shows, Erasmus's understanding of tradition, like his understanding of friendship and property, looks back beyond his patristic sources to some of his favorite Platonic dialogues, including the Republic, the Phaedrus, the Gorgias and the Symposium.
Keywords: friendship, property, Pythagorean, Platonic dialogues, Christian philosophy, tradition
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