Abstract

The traditional aesthetics was preoccupied almost exclusively with the question of beauty. Aesthetics is, as we know, connected with sensuality, i.e. with body. Beauty radiates attractiveness and charm ; we may therefore assume that to some extent it also concerns the erotic field. As for body’s beauty, it is a well-known fact that it is subject to several alterations, at the end to death and disintegration. From this point of view, art appears to be a new economy of life, motivated by death, i.e. a supplement of a live body. Art conserves. Beauty, which is carved into a stone, becomes more durable and independent of the changes inflicted by time. All these issues are found in Plato's Symposium. We have therefore every reason to begin our discussion with him. After all, Plato’s Greece was not only a birthplace of philosophy but also that of art