Week 2

Pausanias: The divided soul: Noble vs. base love, and law as means to the noble love

September 30, 2025 6:30 PM - 8:00 pm

Pausanias says that Eros (love) follows or always accompanies Aphrodite (sexual desire). (Since there are two Aphrodites, there are two Erotes or loves, 180d.) Could there be an Eros without Aphrodite? Does sexual love need a higher end to dignify it (such as children), or is law or custom of such power that it can make any sexual gratification noble (182b)? On the other hand, don’t obstacles to gratification created by law foster or intensify love (183c-d), elevating love by testing the devotion and genuineness of the lover (184a)? Isn’t law, by civilizing us from our original savagery, the cause of beauty in love? Pausanias proposes changing the law to make it “wholly noble” to gratify a virtuous lover, or even a lover that deceives the beloved seeking virtue (185a-b). Does this solve the problem of reciprocity?

Reading: 180c – 185c

Readings are from Plato’s Symposium, trans. Seth Benardete (Univ. of Chicago, 2001).