The relationship between passion and knowing in Plato's philosophy.

Abstract

This text is an approximation to the relationships between suffering and knowing in Plato's philosophy. It considers the divine decree formulated in the Greek tragedy that human beings can only access knowledge through suffering: páthei máthos. The examples of Oedipus and the robbery of divine fire illustrate the force of this command. It is proposed that in Plato's thinking there is also a close relationship between suffering and knowing. The definition of the philosopher as a lover of wisdom expresses this idea, for he is seized by the passion of desire. He loves and longs for knowledge because he is aware of not possessing it. But to admit that one does not know is to recognize one's own limitations. The recognition of this insufficiency is a source of suffering. The philosopher suffers because he knows he is far from the full cultivation of his soul and intelligence. Thus, desire is the power that drives him to search for the full realization of his being. Plato characterizes this impulse as a theía manía (divine madness), in the sense that the philosopher's soul is possessed by the desire for the divine.