ABSTRACT
This chapter delves into metaphysics in order to develop a metaphysical biology opposed to the dualism and mechanism underlying modern science and capitalism. Plato provides one answer to the questions about existence and change in his Symposium. A symposium was a practice in Greece that involved men gathering together to discuss a variety of topics with food, wine, and music. Plato’s dualism brings together previous metaphysical doctrines. Parmenides, on one hand, believed that only unchanging things existed, and that change was an illusion. Heraclitus, on the other, believed that all that exists is change. Both Aristotle’s theory of perception and his theory of fertilization are biologically wrong, though for different reasons, but they have a similar result: they articulate conclusions at odds with his hylomorphic theory and an alienation from nature, and result in misogynistic views of women. Diotima’s speech defines love as a desire for the everlasting possession of beauty, but it also emphasizes that love is generative.
