There is nothing adversarial in a genuine philosophical conversation. The person I am addressing and responding to is not my adversary but a co-inquirer. In the ideal case there is between us a bond of friendship, a philiatic bond. But this philiasubserves the eros of inquiry. The philosopher's love of truth is erotic, in the root, not the sexual, sense of the term, the love of one who lacks for that which he lacks. It is not the agapic love of one who knows and bestows his pearls of wisdom. God’s love is agapic; Socrates’ love of truth is erotic; Socrates’ love for his friends is philiatic.
This is a brilliant piece. This is philosophy as I learned it at a Jesuit college (long before the Jesuits went adrift). Getting together to inquire into the nature of things — which demands, of course, continual rehearsal.
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