This paper represents the second part of a research project I am conducting on “Desire in Ancient Greece”. It brings together the early theoretical considerations of Classical Greek philosophers, particularly those of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, on manifestations of desire in the works of epic, lyric, and tragic poets and Archaic Greek philosophers. Special emphasis is given to the Socrate notion of Eros and to Plato’s discussion of Eros in the dialogues Symposium and Phaedrus. Finally, I aim to summarize Aristotle’s doctrine on the foundations of a metaphysics of desire.
Desire; dialectics; Eros; psyche; metaphysic of desire