Sarah Al-Taher presents a working paper on 'Anthropological (pre)condition: Human being as deficient being in Plato´s myths'

There is no explicit systematic anthropology in Plato's work. Nevertheless, elements of an anthropology can be found in several of Plato’s dialogues including the myths.  In this chapter, I am concerned with the question of whether, and if so to what extent, humans can be understood as deficient beings in Plato’s Work, und what kind of anthropology that would bring forth. This is followed by further questions: How can deficiency be understood, how deficiency relates to human beings and what anthropological consequences result from it.

For this purpose this paper will study the myth of the origin of living beings (Protagoras), the myth of the spherical human the so called “Kugelmenschen” (Symposion), as well as the myth of the chariot of the soul (Phaidros).