The Symposium
by Plato
A drinking party where each guest speaks on love, culminating in Diotima's ladder from beauty to the Good. The classical source for thinking about love and desire.
Read it if…
you want to think seriously about love.
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Skip it if…
you want relationship advice.
Try instead: We: Understanding the Psychology of Romantic Love →
Three things you will actually use
- Love is desire for what we lack.
- Climb from the particular to the universal.
- Beauty points beyond itself.
Do this first
Read Aristophanes's speech, then Socrates's.
Our verdict
On love, at a party.
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