Observations placeholder
Diotima – 04 Eros and the Lovers of Wisdom
Identifier
018757
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
Symposium – Plato [Translator: B. Jowett]
'But who then, Diotima,' I said, 'are the lovers of wisdom, if they are neither the wise nor the foolish?'
'A child may answer that question,' she replied; 'they are those who are in a mean between the two; Love is one of them. For wisdom is a most beautiful thing, and Love is of the beautiful; and therefore Love is also a philosopher or lover of wisdom, and being a lover of wisdom is in a mean between the wise and the ignorant. And of this too his birth is the cause; for his father is wealthy and wise, and his mother poor and foolish. Such, my dear Socrates, is the nature of the spirit Love. The error in your conception of him was very natural, and as I imagine from what you say, has arisen out of a confusion of love and the beloved, which made you think that love was all beautiful. For the beloved is the truly beautiful, and delicate, and perfect, and blessed; but the principle of love is of another nature, and is such as I have described.'