Is the Platonic Concept of Love Intellectualistic? Eros as Contemplative and Desiderative Impulse in Plato

Abstract

It is often assumed in Platonic studies that his conception of ἔρως is a mere instrumental desire for the contemplation of goodness, beauty and justice. It has been recently discussed how the feelings and desires are important in his theory of love. It might seem that for Plato knowledge is truly important, and love, in any case, only comes into life because is a boost for contemplation. Faced with this intellectualist interpretation of love I propose a reading of Plato (Symposium, Phaedrus and Republic) that understands love, in the line of Charles Kahn, as a force inscribed in the depths of the human being. Desire, contemplation and action do not appear as opposite concepts, but as key elements of his ethics.