Plato vs. Freud on eros and sexuality
Plato's concept of love mandates two rectifications. Both of these rectifications are necessary in order for us to appreciate the relevance of Plato's theory of love to contemporary problems. The first depiction comports with the non-sexual aspect of the loving relationship, because Plato's theory of love indeed includes sex.
The second depiction, or rectification, is related inextricably to the heterosexual aspect of the loving relationship. Without a doubt, Plato considers love between people solely as a homosexual phenomenon, but his explication of sex comprises both heterosexual and homosexual relationships.
The sociological setting of Platonism is all one needs to understand it: In Fifth Century Athens, apart from some outstanding exceptions, like Pericles' legendary love for Aspasia, men only married for reproductive needs and ends, yet reserved the term 'love' and the passionate activity of sexual love only for homosexual relationships. However, nothing in Plato's philosophy gets in the way of adapting it in its entirety to modern times, when due to their education and to political changes, women gained the right to love and to be loved as absolute equals to men, who have always enjoyed this very right.
After dispelling these misunderstandings related to the pop-culture notion of Platonic love, we discover a great richness and depth in Plato's comprehension and rationalization of love. In explaining why love is so incredibly critical to us and yet why it falls in our lives so often, Plato's comprehension of love is increasingly applicable to our time.
A pair of lovers might marry for physical attraction, and then discover one another's emotional attributes. But will this lead them to a higher form of affection, in the Platonic ideal of erotic progression? A monk would suggest that modern married life is too distracting to allow a full communion with the divine, in the presence of such worldly responsibilities, and thus religious eroticism is fundamentally incompatible with even
Management Theory As we shift into a new era of management, the outmoded theories rooted in Classical and Scientific Management apply only to specific organizations in specific situations. Newly emerging theories of management take into account not only diversity issues but also issues related to workplace satisfaction, which in turn reduces employee turnover and therefore can improve overall performance. Management theories now need to promote learning organizations and a managerial culture
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