POIESIS II

Meta-Poiesis

 

In Plato’s Symposium, Socrates proposes to speak the truth about Love.

He does this through the recollection of a dialogue he had with Diotima:

How do mortals, through Eros, pursue the good in order to secure their happiness?

Diotima describes how mortals strive for immortality:

​

“in all begetting and bringing forth upon the beautiful there is a kind of making/creating or poiesis.

In this genesis there is a movement beyond the temporal cycle of birth and decay. such a movement can occur in three kinds of poiesis:

​

1.Natural poiesis through sexual procreation

2.Poiesis in the city through the attainment of heroic fame

3.Poiesis in the soul through the cultivation of virtue and knowledge”

​