i ♥ the symposium

Human culture has long celebrated the concept of love, Eros. And while many today only think to celebrate the conventional or appetitive aspects of Eros, such as romantic love and sex, there are other, more refined aspects of Eros to consider as well—aspects that transcend the heat of human passions and stimulate the rational part of the soul to reach for ever greater philosophical heights: From an appreciation of common beauty can arise an apprehension of the form of beauty itself; the celebration of erotic love can be transformed into the love of wisdom, of truth. Each acting as a stepping stone to the other—an idea that's beautifully illustrated in one of my favourite dialogues from Plato, the Symposium, which I find myself returning to again and again.