Plato on Erōs

Abstract

In this article I argue against some recent interpretations that Plato’s doctrine of love in the Symposium and the Phaedrus is not intellectualistic. For this reason I analyze Socrates’ speech in the Symposium trying to grasp the relationship between desire and contemplation. I defend that Plato’s treatment of erōs does not explain love as an act of the will but rather in terms of love as desire. In this sense, many of the critics to Plato’s notion of love come from the comparison with Aristotle’s notion of philia. I argue that while Plato is treating love as desire (how do I experience love), Aristotle focuses his analysis on the act of loving (to whom should I love).