Article
Drinking to Get Drunk: Pleasure, Creativity, and Social Harmony in Greece and China
Comparative and Continental Philosophy
(2011)
Abstract
This essay examines the multifaceted roles of drinking parties in early Greece and in medieval China. It takes as paradigm examples descriptions of ritual intoxication in Plato's Laws and in the poetry of Ouyang Xiu and Mei Yaochen, arguing that these divergent cultural and philosophical traditions can be both related and made distinct through concepts of pleasure, creativity, and social harmony.
Keywords
- drinking,
- symposia,
- literati,
- Plato,
- Ouyang Xiu,
- Mei Yaochen,
- Plato's Laws,
- creativity,
- social harmony,
- pleasure,
- intoxication
Disciplines
Publication Date
February 13, 2011
DOI
10.1558/ccp.v3i2.243
Citation Information
Sarah Mattice. "Drinking to Get Drunk: Pleasure, Creativity, and Social Harmony in Greece and China" Comparative and Continental Philosophy Vol. 3 Iss. 2 (2011) p. 243 - 253 Available at: http://works.bepress.com/sarah-mattice/15/