The Ladder of Love: Plato's Symposium

I am truly milking this book for all the content in it. I already made two other videos from Plato Symposium, so go check those out. But here we are, talking yet again about Plato and love, which is the concept of discussion from his dialogue entitled The Symposium. Have you guys ever been in love? I can't say that I have, that is, until I met you. But if you have been in love, what is it that really drew you in? Was it the looks? The way their eyes are engaged in a sort of dance with their eyebrows that create a passionate but tender look? Was it that? Or perhaps you were captivated by their personality? You'd spend nights together just talking, like a game of ping pong, just bouncing these things we call words back and forth, each containing a representation of our mind with it. Did you fall for them in this endeavor? Or maybe it was a combination of both? The attachment of their personality to their face truly amplified your affection for them, in ways that language fails to explain. Well, Plato had something to say about love, and beauty more specifically, near the end of the symposium. He uses the character of diatima as a means to explain his ladder of love. Now think of a ladder. There's a part where you gotta start, aka the bottom, but ultimately, there's a place where one might do best to end up, aka the top. So as diatima takes you along this journey, think about these different stages of love as a progression, and ask yourself where you might stand. The first step of this ladder of beauty begins with the contemplation of physical beauty, but more specifically, the physical beauty of a single person. So you and your friends, you go to the movies, back when that was a thing, get your popcorn, relax in one of those recliner chairs, and in this movie, you see the most beautiful actress ever, Dakota Johnson. You're captivated, but you ask yourself, why do I find her beautiful? This contemplation of the physical beauty of one person, leads to the next stage, physical beauty of many people. You'll notice that, perhaps the reason you're into Dakota Johnson is her brunette hair, or her eyebrows. But you look out into the world, and you realize, huh, there are other people with these similar physical traits. And through this recognition of all physical beauty, the intensity of your love for a specific person, in this example, Dakota Johnson, is lessened. Unless you're me. Then that love can never be lessened. So then we move on from physical beauty to the beauty of the soul. Now I know, I know, some of you aren't going to be on board with this idea of the soul, but try to relax, and maybe it'd help to think of it more as personality. Now according to diatima, a great virtuous soul is going to be appealing even in a body that has little physical beauty. Sometimes I think about Sartre's play No Exit, where I'm put in this hypothetical, where I'm trapped in a room with people for all of eternity. And I ask myself, if I had to spend an eternity with these people, which would I prefer? Beautiful bodies, or beautiful personalities? I'd obviously choose the latter. So where do we go after this? Next is to contemplate beauty in activities and institutions, as diatima describes. Now this is a weird one, but I heard some interpretations say it's referring to institutions in a political way. After all, if there's beauty in political institutions, and those political institutions influence us, then perhaps they could be a source for some of our beauty. My edition of the symposium at least, doesn't go much into this step, so feel free to comment below your own ideas of what activities and institutions might mean. The next step is to contemplate the beauty of wisdom, knowledge, and the sciences. This is another strange one. Like how can you find beauty in knowledge? Isn't it all just purposely dry? Perhaps the beauty can be found in an appreciation for knowledge, or maybe a love for the way knowledge might work for one. Reading a biography of Bertrand Russell led me to believe he saw a beauty in certainty, which might be why he got into analytic philosophy and mathematics. But I want to hear your thoughts on this. What is the beauty of knowledge? And finally, we get to the last step on our journey. After all this contemplation on beauty, we get to the form of beauty. Let me let Diatima herself explain it. This beauty is first of all eternal. It neither comes into being nor passes away, neither waxes nor wanes. Next, it is not beautiful in part and ugly in part, nor beautiful at one time and ugly at another, nor beautiful in this relation and ugly in that, nor beautiful here and ugly there, as varying according to its beholders. He will see it as absolute, existing alone with itself, unique, eternal, and all other beautiful things as partaking of it. Yet in such a matter that, while they come into being and pass away, it neither undergoes any increase or diminution nor suffers any change. Now this kind of hints at Plato's theory of forms, which I have planned for another video with his Allegory of the Cave. Subscribe to get notified when that drops. But think for a moment about beauty. We can think of all of these examples, Dakota Johnson obviously, but also mountains, lakes, music perhaps. These things change themselves. And since we change with these things based on our sense experience, then they change in that regard too. What would an eternal, unchanging beauty be then? What is the essence of beauty, one might ask? Now before we go in a little deeper, I want to let Diatima just quickly sum up this journey we've been on so far. This is the right way of approaching or being initiated into the mysteries of love. To begin with examples of beauty in this world, and using them as steps to ascend continually with that absolute beauty as one's aim. From one instance of physical beauty to two, and from two to all. Then from physical beauty to moral beauty, and from moral beauty to the beauty of knowledge. Until from knowledge of various kinds one arrives at the supreme knowledge whose sole object is that absolute beauty, and knows at last what absolute beauty is. What I want to talk about a little is the beginning of the journey, starting with the love of physical beauty and then the love of the soul of a person. It seems like Plato is both upholding the value of physical beauty but also devaluing it at the same time. My reasoning for the first part is that it is the entryway into this whole ladder of love, the required first step. Diatima even calls it the right way of beginning the approach into the mysteries of love. So don't feel bad about being attracted to physical beauty, it is a step towards that absolute beauty after all. At the same time it is the first step below many, and I can't help wondering if physical beauty should be devalued below one's soul or personality. One of the reasons Plato places less value on the physical body of one person is that he claims that we could find similar physical traits in others. Like in our Dakota Johnson example she's brunette and we could find other brunettes in the world. I think this might be an oversimplification though. Even if we assume that we could find exact resemblances in other people, it's not only the stand-alone body features of someone, i.e. their eyebrows or lips, but it's the parts of the body as they interact with the whole. A great face is comprised of individually great parts, like the eyes, the nose, etc. It's not the stand-alone parts, but the interaction between the parts which creates beauty for some people. But what do you think? Comment below, and while you're down there, subscribe, like, and hit the bell for more content. Comment below who you think is the most beautiful person, but keep in mind that I'll be deleting any comment that isn't Schopenhauer. Have a great rest of your day.