Jan G. J. TER REEGEN and Ana Alice MENESCAL

The passions in Plato's The Republic and Ion: possibilities of philosophical inquiry

As paixões em A República e Íon de Platão: possibilidades do pensar filosófico

Published in Aristocracy and nobility in the Ancient and Medieval World

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This article analyzes Plato's arguments regarding passions. In Ion, Plato proposes that passions are something poetic, beautiful and necessary to man, in The Republic something that takes man away from the path of reason, making him lose his strength. That is why the philosopher defends the banishment of poets from his republic. It is worth noting that The Republic is one of the texts that best reflects the aristocratic origin of Plato. The object of analysis proposed here are the passions in two dialogues: a Socratic (Ion) one and another of the philosopher’s maturity (The Republic).