Monday, May 8, 2017

Anger and Appetite

Paul Cantor's worthwhile lectures on Shakespeare's political plays have made good dinner-prep listening for me for the past month or so.  But they raised a complicated contemporary question in my mind.  According to Cantor (to whom, apologies, since I grossly simplify), the republican regime in Rome was characterized by thumos (see Coriolanus) and the imperial regime by eros (see Antony and Cleopatra).

Thus, the background.  So, my question:

Thinking back to the Platonic understanding of these terms, is Trump more chracterized by thumos or by eros?

Discuss.

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