Демоничният Ерос на Платон в диалозите Федър и Пирът
Plato’s Daemonic Eros in the Dialogues Phaedrus and the Symposium

Summary/Abstract: The purpose of the current study is to present an interpretation of Eros and its dаemonic aspect as it is described in Plato’s dialogues Phaedrus and the Symposium as well as to attempt to shed some light on the question in which way the erotic as such influences Plato’s notion of the philosophic way of life. In the first part of the study an account is given of the Platonic Eros as a unifying element and as striving for Being. I defend the position that in the context of the interpreted dialogues, philosophy is thought of as an erotic enterprise which manifests itself as a coming closer to the object of love. This coming closer takes place as recollection in Phaedrus and as creating in beauty in the Symposium. Further, I suggest that the creative activity in which the philosophic lover is involved lets a certain daemonic time arise. In the second part of the study, I identify and discuss a twofold structure in the erotic dynamics which consists of a daemonic pull on the side of the beloved giving rise to an erotic striving on the side of the lover. The lover is pulled towards the beloved which is perceived by the lover as something daemonic, as the effect of a foreign commanding power over him. What pulls the lover is the beautiful itself and it is the way in which Being appears to the philosophic lover. At the end of this part, I discuss the consequences of this way of appearing of Being for Plato’s thinking. In the third part of this study, I focus on mindfulness as a necessary condition for the initiation of a philosophic life. I maintain that the purpose of mindfulness is the attainment of freedom and a reflective stance in respect to one’s erotic strivings;

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