HUM 203 • Myers

Symposium: Socrates

IDEAL

FORMS

Socrates (and Plato) theorize a place beyond this world that contains perfect representations – forms – of every aspect of the universe. It's referred to as the realm (or world) of Forms or Ideals.

Socrates' part of the Symposium is about his pursuit of the ideal, which he sees as his task in life.

Love, he says, is his guide in this quest.

  1. Diotima of Mantineia
  2. Socrates' "instructress in the art of love."
  1. The nature of Love
  2. Because love is the desire for "the good," the personification of love cannot be a god.
  3. Love is in between god and mortal.
  4. "He interprets ... between gods and men..."
  5. "...he is the mediator who spans the chasm which divides them..."
  6. "...conveying and taking across to the gods the prayers and sacrifices of men..."
  7. "...through him the arts of the prophet and the priest, their sacrifices and mysteries and charms, and all, prophecy and incantation, find their way."
  1. Parentage of Love
  2. His father is Plenty and his mother Poverty.
  3. Poverty got Plenty to have sex with her when he was drunk during the celebration of the birthday of Aphrodite, and the result was Love.
  4. Love's parentage means:
  5. He is always poor – he can show up anywhere, even in the most squalid circumstances.
  6. He is always going after more – nothing deters him.
  7. "...he is in a mean between ignorance and knowledge."
  8. Philosopher – a lover of wisdom.
  9. Socrates says the wise have wisdom and the ignorant don't want it, so on earth, no one really seeks wisdom.
  1. Love and philosophy
  2. Anything humans pursue is the result of love, but only those who want the love of another person are called lovers.
  3. Anyone who seeks anything they perceive to be good is a lover.
  4. "...love ... may be described generally as the love of the everlasting possession of the good..."
  1. Love and reproduction
  2. Appreciation for the ideal makes humans want to create – whether it is art, a successful life, or a child.
  3. What we're really seeking is immortality.
  4. We recognize our own limitations and want to bring something into the world that transcends them.
  5. It's hard, but we do it anyway.
  6. This accounts for the desire for fame.
  1. Love between two people
  2. Humans see the ideal in the beloved, and continue to do so, even after the physical representation of the ideal fades (with age).
  3. Ideal love between the erastes (lover) and his eromenos (beloved) leads to the birth of something more beautiful than children.
  1. How to use love in the pursuit of the ideal
  2. Learn about the Forms.
  3. Concentrate on one particular Form as your chief pursuit in life.
  4. It could be wisdom, politics, parenting, art, war, etc. Socrates mentions all of these.
  5. Understand that the ideal (Form) is beyond this world, and that "the beauty of the mind is more honourable than the beauty of the outward form."
  6. Recognize that Forms exist in the minds of all people.
  7. Reach past your particular pursuit of perfection into the pursuit of perfection in all: i.e. wisdom.
  8. "...begin from the beauties of earth and mount upwards for the sake of that other beauty, using these as steps only, and from one going on to two, and from two to all fair forms, and from fair forms to fair practices, and from fair practices to fair notions, until from fair notions he arrives at the notion of absolute beauty..."
  1. Diotima's final instructions
  2. "This, my dear Socrates,” said the stranger of Mantineia, “is that life above all others which man should live, in the contemplation of beauty absolute..."
  3. Philosophy allows you to touch the absolute in your mind, and love is the guide that helps you get there.