The Symposium is very important in the philosophical tradition. Socrates dragging Alcibiades from the Embrace of Sensual Pleasure, by Jean-Baptiste Regnault, 1791 Soon everyone passed out, except the philosopher, who left and went about his business. The party becomes chaotic and disorderly. Alcibiades’ story showed that Socrates had no interest in sexual pleasure. In Ancient Greece, sexual relationships between males were tolerated, and those between an older man and a younger man were considered praiseworthy. He interrupted everyone to tell them how he tried to seduce Socrates. He showed how love can help the human mind ascend to a higher, eternal realm, one beyond the temporal world of the senses.Īt this point, the notorious Alcibiades, who is very drunk and rowdy, butted in. One of the most important Forms was the form of beauty, and Socrates said love can guide a person to its contemplation. The Forms were the essence of things from which flow what we perceive as reality they are called ‘ideas’ in some translations. Thus, love is the desire or spirit which lifts the human soul to the knowledge of the Forms. Socrates held that the world of the senses is based on Forms which exist in an eternal realm. It is a spirit or daimon and it mediates between the gods and men, reproducing itself either through the birth of new beings or new ideas. Love was a spirit, Socrates learned, that helped us to attain what we desired and needed. He then told the following story: He once met a wise woman, who called herself Diotima. He disagreed with Agathon, stating that he mistook the object of love with its intrinsic nature. Alcibades being taught by Socrates, François-André Vincent, 1776
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