Love and Beauty in Plato's <i>Symposium</i>

Abstract

It is a widely held view that according to the Symposium the ultimate or ‘primary’ object of love is the Form of Beauty. It is almost as widely held that the Form of Beauty is identical with that of the Good. In this paper I argue that both of these views are mistaken. In a first section I present a detailed analysis of Diotima's doctrine, emphasizing features of it which I judge to be often overlooked. In subsequent sections I examine the arguments for and against the claim that Beauty is the primary object of love, and I then do the same for the assertion that the Form of Beauty is identical with that of the Good.