Teaching Plato in Translation
by Susan Gorman, Boston University
Original text © 2004 Susan Gorman
The Symposium
Love
Love is important, as described in the Symposium, because it aids in the question for immortality (206 e). This assertion is especially interesting because it means that there is something of the beautiful, of the immortal, in the love between a man and a woman because it produces a kind of immortality. Although it is still low on the ladder, it is there. This idea sheds interesting light on the position of women in the Platonic conception of women.
One question that my students (and I) always puzzle over is the place of women in Platonic thought. Here, women are included on the path to immortality in that they can bear children, one (even if the lowest) form of immortality. Later in this text, Socrates learns the most important lesson about love from Diotima, a priestess. However, Socrates dismisses his wife from his cell in the Apology and spends his last moments with his male friends. Women in the Republic can be considered equally eligible to become guardians, yet they are not considered exactly equal.
How does love move from the love of a man and a woman in the production of children to the love of men and the creation of laws?
I always put the ladder of succession toward good on the board
By an ever-widening focus and an ever-larger abstraction, love moves upward.
We move on the ladder of sucession toward good from the private to the public. Private good, while beneficial, is significantly less important than the public good. If you create something that helps yourself, that is good but if you create enduring philosophy, you help everyone and are forever immortalized. Just as in other Platonic texts, the philosophy is based on the tension between public and private.
