Climbing Diotima’s Ladder of Love

What is the ‘form’ of love?

Plato’s Symposium is the quintessential text in the philosophy of love, and one of the central metaphysical ideas in it is Diotima’s ladder of love. Diotima — being a teacher to the Athenian philosopher, Socrates — according to Socrates, was wise beyond comprehension with regards to the ideas of love and beauty. She was unsurpassed in the uniqueness which she brought to the table with respect to the questions of “what is love” and “what is beauty.”

For it is rather easy to be unwise with regards to these ideas. Superficiality is the norm in general: what makes us think it is not the norm when discussing matters of love and beauty? Such complicated notions cannot be commonplace thought of in their most profound manifestations when ideas which are far shallower — yet, still in their own way, profound — are invariably thought of in quite frivolous fashions.

The Symposium is structured as a series of speeches regarding the nature of love, and the one directly prior to Socrates’ — in which Socrates’ incarnates the wisdom of Diotima — by Aristophanes (the famous comic playwright) is quite well thought out, and literarily beautiful. It pulls at the heartstrings. Are we not simply separated from our other half before being born, wandering this life to reunite with it?

To take the metaphysics of such a proposition in fully is to really feel good about what love is. “Ah. But there is someone out there for me! I simply haven’t found them yet! My life isn’t lonely. Someone else out there is likewise alone, and it is because I am alone too. I will find them!” And in fully accepting such a metaphysical proposition, there seems to be a sort of depth to the notion of finding your other half. For single people, the thought of being single for most is generally speaking a lonely thought, precisely because there is the chance that there is someone out there for you. Such a metaphysic — or, more precisely, ontological orientation (i.e., the notion of another half, for both single and coupled people, is a way of being-in-the-world) — can serve to buttress the misery of being alone. “It’s okay. One day I’ll find someone. There’s someone out there for everyone” is generally the antithesis notion against the barrage of, “I’ll never find someone, and I’ll be alone…