Desiderare l’immortalità

lo stratagemma della generazione e i suoi limiti

Abstract

Wishing for immortality: the stratagem of birth-giving and its limits

In the well-known passage which concludes the «lower mysteries» (206b-209e), Diotima establishes a connection between birth-giving, both spiritual and physical, and the wish for immortality typical of human beings. In this essay I intended to bring to light the following: a) in the Symposium both birth-giving and self-preservation take priority over the possible distinction between the immortality of species and individual mortality; b) the reading of some passages from the Crito confirm that it is further possible to question the sharp distinction between birthed children and spiritual ones; and c) the extreme and emblematic case of Alcibiades. Because of these three factors, the search for immortality is always exposed to risk and fallibility. Self-love tends to persist by projecting itself in the other: it is unrelated to gods, it is typically human both for its imperfect nature and for the freedom which characterizes it at all levels.