Asylum for the Shameless: Honor and Conciliatory Otherness in Plato’s Symposiumㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ
Author：David W. Black
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This paper suggests that Plato’s Symposium is in part concerned with a comprehensive critique of shamelessness—in particular, the shameless competition for honor practiced by the Athenian intelligentsia. Plato develops this concern by distinguishing two types of poets. One, a nurturing genius constrained by the modesty proper to the true lover; the other, a reckless panderer who speaks free from the influence of eros and instead seeks immortality through the pursuit of earthly fame. The lesser poets pursue such fame by developing a meretricious relationship with the “crowd.” For Plato, the crowd represents a unique misappropriation of desire that arises through a corruption of conscience. Crowds exist as cultivated havens used to assuage moral anguish by separating humans, at least temporarily, from their modesty. This type of crowd provides a conciliatory otherness to a morally confused self, providing dependable comfort and gratification for those who live within it and for those who appeal to it.