'ONLY IN THE CONTEMPLATION OF BEAUTY IS HUMAN LIFE WORTH LIVING' PLATO, SYMPOSIUM 211d

Socrates' speech in praise of eros in the Symposium (201d-212c) is perhaps one of the most influential passages Plato ever composed. It is also one of the most discussed, and any attempt to add to the huge literature that surrounds it needs some justification. My reason for returning to it is not so much a desire to offer yet another interpretation of what Plato really meant to say about the relationship between eros and its inherent attraction to kalon, which I will translate as "beauty". What I would like to try to do is to see how much of what Plato says here can be read not just as an inspired (and inspiring) flight of the imagination but also as something we can actually believe--a solid, knowing and accurate description of the phenomenology of love and beauty.