You might think you know how to love
BUT PLATO SAYS YOU DON’T
In fact, he argues that everyone must be trained in the art of loving
So what's that look like?
Here’s 12 lessons from the Symposium to teach you how to love:
The Setting:
The Symposium takes place at a banquet with a group of men, including Socrates (written by Plato)
Socrates gives a speech on love, explaining:
1. What love is not
2. What true love is
3. How true love brings true happiness
Thus, he first debunks myths on love:
1.) Romantic love is NOT good
Socrates says romantic love is not good, because it can exist in excess
An excess of romantic love:
- Blinds you
- Puts passion over reason
- Distracts you from life’s ultimate truth and beauty
Romance should be enjoyed, but not worshipped
2.) True love does NOT exist
Socrates rejects the idea of a soulmate
While he says marriage is beautiful
He maintains love for another person is not enough to fulfill you
You should seek a spouse and love them, but don't seek fulfillment in them
3.) Love is not good
Socrates defines love as a spirit that desires goodness
He thus affirms love is not inherently good:
1. You can only desire what you don’t have
2. Love desires goodness
3. Therefore, love is not good
This means love must be trained to seek the good
4.) Love wants the divine
If man desires good things, then he also wants them permanently
In desiring permanence, man desires immortality, which is achieved 2 ways:
1. Physical offspring
2. Mental offspring (leaving a legacy)
Thus love's desire points you to the divine
5.) Beauty is key
Socrates says beauty is love's guide to reach immortality:
1. Physical - beauty inspires physical reproduction
2. Mental - inspires your mind to virtue and wisdom, creating a legacy
When you pursue the beautiful, you discover the divine
6.) The Ladder of love
Socrates explains how to use beauty to reach the divine, using the metaphor of a ladder:
It begins with physical beauty
And points upward to an eternal, unchanging beauty, where ultimate happiness rests
7.) Love of the physical
The first 2 steps of the ladder concern physical bodies:
1. Love of a beautiful person
2. Love of beautiful people
You learn physical beauty shares traits, and ask:
What are the traits of beauty?
This questions leads your love of beauty up to the mental
Inspired by physical beauty, you learn to love beautiful minds
You fall in love with spiritual and moral beauty
This love of beautiful minds leads you to ask:
How does one practice goodness?
9.) Love of law
As you love beautiful minds
You begin to love the law, practice, and customs of people with beautiful minds
You desire to “act,” good
And now ask, “what is goodness?”
10.) Love of knowledge
As you seek goodness, you cultivate a love of knowledge and learning
You desire to know the source of all beauty, asking “what is THE good?”
11.) Love of love itself
When you desire the highest good in reality, you complete you ascent... you learn unconditional love:
A desire for the beauty of love itself
Unconditional love lets you discern beauty in all things
You affirm life is beautiful
As you affirm life's beauty, you discover true love:
An unwavering desire to be in unity with Goodness itself
Thus, your duty is to ponder the highest good, and seek after it with all your heart
This, Plato says, is true love
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