Eros as First Philosophy

310 Pages·2017·1.76 MB·English

Eros as First Philosophy: The Amorous
Foundation of Ethics
Author: Tyler Viale
Persistent link: http://hdl.handle.net/2345/bc-ir:107699
This work is posted on eScholarship@BC,
Boston College University Libraries.
Boston College Electronic Thesis or Dissertation, 2018
Copyright is held by the author. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0).
Eros as First Philosophy:
The Amorous Foundation of Ethics
Tyler Viale
A dissertation
submitted to the Faculty of
the department of philosophy
in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
Boston College
Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences

Graduate School
January 2018
© Copyright 2018 Tyler Viale
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Eros as First Philosophy:
The Amorous Foundation of Ethics
Tyler Viale
Advisor: Richard Kearney, Ph.D.
Abstract: This dissertation addresses and then attempts to further what could be called
the “French” Phenomenological tradition and its developments of a phenomenology of
eros in dialogue with—and often as a response to—older Platonic conceptions of eros.1
Eros, I show, had a foundational role in Plato’s ethics; becoming ethical was dependent on
first having an erotic encounter with beauty. However, this connection between love and
ethics has been frequently abandoned in 20th-century philosophy. I argue that this move,
a side-effect of the development of a philosophy of alterity, was ultimately founded on
faulty assumptions about the nature of love, as well as its connection to the good and the
beautiful. For that reason, after first elucidating the concerns raised regarding an ethical
eros and the reasons for the denial of love’s foundational role, I establish a definition of
eros that can once again play the same role as Plato saw for it while simultaneously
addressing the 20th century’s concerns about alterity and the recognition of the Other.
Re-establishing this role requires arguing for three key theses:
1. Recognition of the Other is based on recognizing his or her beauty and goodness
2. Love of the Other is love of the Other as individual, not in light of some attribute
3. Love of the Other forms the basis of our entering into the ethical attitude.
1 The title ‘French phenomenology’—widely used—is a misnomer, as many figures, including several large
figures, are not ethnically French, or even necessarily Francophone. Shulamith Firestone, included in this
work, was an English-speaking Canadian raised in the United States, however, her usage of Beauvoir’s work
puts her in the same intellectual tradition. Nor are all those included even properly called
phenomenologists, if by that we mean in the lineage of Husserl. Gabriel Marcel, for example, uses the word
phenomenology, but had seemingly no direct familiarity with Husserl’s work (he had some knowledge of
Heidegger’s), and is more often classified as an existentialist.
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Combined, these theses build towards an ethical eros in two senses. First, they
show that eros itself is an ethical relationship, which will be defined as an encounter with
the Other structured by signification (the reasons for this definition will be made clear
when I examine Levinas’ ethics). Second, the erotic encounter with one beautiful Other
(which may or may not lead to a response of love) leads to the development of an ethical
disposition toward all Others. In the dissertation, these theses are developed against the
background of existing views about eros, in order to show their necessity, as well as to
explore the reasons why they have so far been denied. Part I, “Platonic Eros,” therefore, is
an in-depth reading of eros from the Platonic point of view, as seen primarily in the
Symposium and Phaedrus. Part II, “Impossible Eros,” picks up on Plato’s failing to recognize
the alterity of the Other and begins a critique of Plato from that point, carried out by a
variety of early philosophers in the French philosophical tradition, including Jean-Paul
Sartre, Jacques Lacan, and Shulamith Firestone. Part III, “Unspeakable Eros,” is a direct
response to Part II, dealing primarily with Emmanuel Levinas and Jean-Luc Marion. Part
IV, “Ethical Eros” is the conclusion of the dissertation, in which I argue that love can
once again take on its role, assigned to it already in Plato, as the basis of ethics.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION ................................................................................1
§1: Love Languages ..................................................................................................................2
§2: What’s love got to do with (it)? .........................................................................................11
§3: General Outline ................................................................................................................14
PART I: PLATONIC EROS: DESIRE AND THE EROMENOS ....................17
CHAPTER 1: LOVE IN THE DIALOGUES ...................................................17
§1: Cultural and Pederastic accounts of eros .........................................................................20
§1.1: The defense of pederasty in the Symposium ............................................................21
§1.2: Critique of Pederasty ................................................................................................25
§2: Explanatory accounts of Eros ..........................................................................................29
§2.1: Natural Eros ..............................................................................................................30
§2.2: Divine Eros ................................................................................................................35
§3: Socratic accounts of Eros: Kalon and the Other .............................................................42
§3.1: Socratic Eros I: The Symposium ..............................................................................44
§3.1.1: Eros’ Parentage ..............................................................................................................45
§3.1.2: Birth in Beauty ..............................................................................................................50
§3.1.3: The Final Mysteries .......................................................................................................54
§3.1.4: Alcibiades’ inversion ......................................................................................................55
§3.2: Socratic Eros II: The Phaedrus .................................................................................56
§3.2.1: The Four Mania ............................................................................................................58
§3.2.2: The Charioteer Myth ....................................................................................................59
§3.2.3: The Movement of Eros .................................................................................................61
CHAPTER 2: PLATONIC EROS .................................................................66
§1: The Kalon ........................................................................................................................66
§2: The Individual ..................................................................................................................73
§3: A Final Interpretation ......................................................................................................78
§4: The Stakes ........................................................................................................................83
INTERLUDE 1: A NOTE ON METHOD ...........................................................85
PART II: UNETHICAL EROS: THE FAILURE TO CONSUMMATE ............88
CHAPTER 3: THE FAILURE OF LOVE .......................................................88
§1: The Failure of the Lovers .................................................................................................92
§1.1: Some Clarifications ...................................................................................................93
§2: Love’s Separation From the Best Life ...............................................................................97
§2.1: The Best Life and Love’s Offer .................................................................................99
§2.2: The Lover’s Empty Promise ....................................................................................102
§2.3: The Best Life and Sexual Difference ......................................................................107
§3: Non-mutual Love ...........................................................................................................114
§4: Unfixable Love ...............................................................................................................118
CHAPTER 4: THE FAILURE OF SEX ........................................................123
§1: Some Preliminary Remarks ............................................................................................124
§2: Naive Otherness and Objectification ............................................................................128
§3: Sexual Difference and Otherness ...................................................................................132
§4: Jouissance, Desire, The Good and the Beautiful ............................................................138
§4.1: Beauty’s Divorce ......................................................................................................139
§4.2: Lacan and Psychoanalytic Ethics ............................................................................144
§5 Conclusions and Stakes ...................................................................................................149
INTERLUDE 2: REFOUNDING EROS ...........................................................153
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PART III: UNSPEAKABLE EROS: A FAILURE TO COMMUNICATE. ........156
CHAPTER 5: THE RECOVERY OF THE GOOD .........................................156
§1: Levinas’ Good Beyond Being ........................................................................................159
§1.1: Existence and Existents ...........................................................................................160
§1.2: Totality and Infinity ................................................................................................164
§1.3: Otherwise than Being .............................................................................................174
§2: Marion’s God Beyond Being ..........................................................................................181
§2.1: The Idol and Distance ............................................................................................182
§2.2: God Without Being .................................................................................................186
§3: The Refusal of Beauty ....................................................................................................190
§3.1: The Beautiful in Levinas .........................................................................................190
§3.2: The Beautiful in Marion .........................................................................................195
§4: Transitions ......................................................................................................................198
CHAPTER 6: THE SILENCE OF EROS .....................................................200
§1: Levinasian Eros ..............................................................................................................201
§1.1: Sex in the Dark .......................................................................................................202
§1.2: Speechlessness .........................................................................................................205
§1.3: The Escape to Ethics ...............................................................................................211
§2: Marion’s Erotic Reduction .............................................................................................216
§2.1: The Critique of Universality ..................................................................................217
§2.2: The Erased Phenomenon .......................................................................................221
§2.3: Loving Through the Good ......................................................................................229
§3: Conclusions ....................................................................................................................231
INTERLUDE 3: THE PHAEDRUS TEST ........................................................233
PART IV: ETHICAL EROS ..................................................................236
CHAPTER 7: RECOVERING THE BEAUTIFUL .........................................236
§1: The Call of Beauty .........................................................................................................239
§1.1: “Plastic” and Personal Beauty .................................................................................240
§1.2: Beauty’s Voice .........................................................................................................245
§1.3: Toward the Good, Toward Ethics ...........................................................................251
§2: Responding to Beauty ....................................................................................................255
§2.1: Contemplation of Beauty .......................................................................................258
§2.2: Creation of Beauty ..................................................................................................261
CHAPTER 8: LOVE ................................................................................267
§1: What is Love? .................................................................................................................269
§2: Beautiful Desire ..............................................................................................................277
§3: Eros Speaks .....................................................................................................................285
POSTLUDE ...............................................................................................293
BIBLIOGRAPHY ..............................................................................298
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To all those who have loved me,
and who have shown me what it means to love.
INTRODUCTION
We have been told since our early childhood days that everybody is beautiful, and
that we should do our best to see the beauty of each person we meet. But what does this
statement really mean? What does it mean to say that everyone is beautiful, and, if that is
even true, how should we act towards people upon seeing their beauty? Our normal
responses to beauty—contemplation or love—seem an inappropriate response. We
certainly should not simply stare at everybody as if they were statues, nor does it seem
possible to love (romantically or sexually, which seem to be the most accurate love-
responses to beauty) every person we encounter. Nor does the premise even seem sound.
Not everybody seems to be beautiful to my eyes. In fact, those who are in most need of
care from me, the sick and dying, the badly injured, or the malnourished are often nearly
impossible to see as beautiful. Rather, the initial reaction is often one of repulsion. It
seems it is only by moving beyond the appearance of the person that I can truly respond
to her needs, and give her the care she deserve. The ethical treatment of the other person
seems to require the abandonment of aesthetic judgement
Perhaps, however, we can find a way around this problem. Perhaps we can better
understand beauty so that it is not just the model, but every human being who I am able
to see as beautiful. Perhaps I can better understand my response to beauty so that, rather
than halting at love or contemplation, it might actually lead to the ethical response. The
advantages, if this is true, would be significant. Ethical training could begin at the same
young age at which we are first told that everybody is beautiful. Children, before they are
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old enough to rationally consider ethics, could be given the important training to
experience beauty correctly, to understand what it really means to be beautiful, and to
begin to develop the proper responses to beauty. Indeed, this seems to be precisely what
Aristotle himself envisions for the ethical training of young people when he notes that
they must be raised from an early age to feel pleasure and pain at the right sorts of things
—ethical training begins with the training of the passions.
If our immediate concern is beauty, then the passion we ought to concerned with
is precisely love, specifically what the ancient Greeks called eros. We can therefore narrow
down our question as follows: how does eros, if at all, engender an ethical response? This
question, in turn, can be asked on two levels, both of which will be addressed here: how is
loving somebody itself an ethical relationship, and secondly, how does this single love
relationship help structure or further develop my ethical relationships with others who I
may not love? In order to answer these questions however, it will first be necessary to
answer a preliminary question. On what basis, and to what extent, can we treat the
ancient Greek conception of eros as equivalent to our own use of the word love. Only
once this has been shown can we then turn to the discussion of how eros can provide a
basis for our entrance into the ethical attitude.
§1: Love Languages
This work treats eros as something like a passion, while acknowledging that its
perfection comes in the form of a relationship. Since both sides of that debate rarely deny
that the other kind of love exists at all (and only whether it is what we primarily ought to
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