Eros as a Wing That Lifts the Soul

The chapter's central question

Plato's Eros is not the satisfaction enjoyed by an already perfect being, but a movement in which a being who feels lacking wants to possess good and beautiful things for a long time. The ladder of love in Symposium depicts the process of broadening one's perspective from the beauty of one body to many bodies, a beautiful soul, institutions, knowledge, and finally beauty itself.

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Many people misunderstand that ‘philosophy only worships cold, impersonal logic.’ However, Plato praised true love (Eros, Erōs) as the most holy ‘divine madness (Theia Mania)’ that leads humans to wisdom.

In the Feast, Socrates explains the ‘ladder of love’ by borrowing the words of the priestess Diotima. Love begins with a physical attraction that makes your heart flutter as you fall in love with the appearance of a beautiful person. But a mature soul does not stop there. We come to love the beautiful soul and character beyond appearances, and this sublimates into a noble passion that longs for a just system, wisdom, and the ultimate ‘beauty itself.’

In other words, for Plato, emotions are not weeds that need to be suppressed, dried up, and killed, but rather, they are a sacred flame that waters the wings that sprout in the soul and allows it to soar to a higher and sublime level.

Context and nuance

Plato's theory of emotions is not organized in a single, independent theoretical book. The full picture is revealed only when the theory of justice in Republic, the soul and love in 『Phaedrus』, and the theory of eros in 『The Feast』 are read together. Emotion is not a lump on the other side of reason; it is a matter of how the different forces of the soul form an order.

‘Ascension’ runs the risk of being read as a command to abandon the person in front of you and love only abstract ideas. A more productive reading would be to see it as a shift away from the desire to monopolize the beauty found in one person and to ask how that beauty can grow throughout life and the community as a whole.

Do not oversimplify it this way

Plato's image of the head, chest, stomach and two horses should not be read like an anatomy diagram of modern brain science. This is a philosophical model that shows the conflict and educability within the soul. Also, fixating the black horse as evil and the white horse as good misses the point of the metaphor. The power of desire is also necessary to move one's life, and the key is not elimination but attunement.

Philosophy in life

I'm on a diet, but at 11pm, I smell ramen and think, 'I have to endure it!' and 'Let's eat it just for today!' Have you ever been tormented in between?

Write down three voices in your emotional diary: the voice of desire vs. the voice of spirit vs. the final decision of reason.

Primary-source guide

Primary guide: Republic IV, Phaedrus 246a–257b, and Symposium 210a–212a.

Pathos Editorial · Reviewed 2026-09-12