Eros in Plato, Rousseau, and Nietzsche
The Politics of Infinity
Laurence D. Cooper
“This is an excellent book—clear, lively, and interesting from beginning to end—and quite original in what it so persuasively shows: the deep agreement in these three philosophers’ understanding of the human soul.”
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“This is an excellent book—clear, lively, and interesting from beginning to end—and quite original in what it so persuasively shows: the deep agreement in these three philosophers’ understanding of the human soul.”
“Cooper has produced an ambitious and provocative book that investigates the central role of erotic longing in Plato, Rousseau, and Nietzsche. With a keen eye for the psychological dimension of philosophy, Cooper reveals how the human desire to transcend finitude—whether understood as eros, the expansive soul, or the will to power—is critical for these thinkers’ conceptions of philosophy and prescriptions for politics.”
Laurence D. Cooper is Associate Professor of Political Science at Carleton College. He is the author of Rousseau, Nature, and the Problem of the Good Life (Penn State, 1999).
Contents
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Introduction: The Oneness of Desire—But Which One?
1. The Republic as Prologue
Part One: Platonic Eros—The Effectual Truth
2. First Truths
3. What Does Eros Want?
4. Love of Wisdom versus Love of the Wise: Eros in Action
Part Two: Rousseau and the Expansiveness of Being
5. Between Eros and Will to Power: Rousseau and “The Desire to Extend Our Being”
6. Emile, or On Philosophy?
Part Three: Nietzsche’s New Eternity
7. Nietzsche’s Politeia, I
8. Nietzsche’s Politeia, II
9. Will to Power versus Eros, or a Battle of Eternities
Epilogue: One or Many?
References
Index
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