platonic

What comes to your mind when you hear the term "platonic love"? A dull, daft, passionless, puritanical kind of relationship proposed by an over two millennia old Greek philosopher?

Let's examine what exactly did Plato say (through the mouth of a fictive prophetess) about the lure and pursuit of "eros" (from which we get the word "erotic") in his dialogue Symposium:

"First [a lover] should love one body ... [then he realizes] the beauty of all bodies is one and the same ... After this he must think that the beauty of people’s souls is more valuable than the beauty of their bodies ... [he is then] turned to the great sea of beauty, and gazing upon this, he gives birth to many gloriously beautiful ideas and theories ... [until finally] he comes to know just what it is to be beautiful."

What exists behind the many beautiful things, and beauty itself, is what Plato calls the "form" of beauty. A form is the essence of things, be they physical items, such as rocks and trees, cats and dogs, or abstract notions and ideas, such as equality and harmony, beauty and justice, etc., all have their own forms and together they form the "real real" of the world, in lieu of the superficial, surface appearances that our sensory body detects.

And there is an ultimate form known as the Form of the Good. It is considered the highest and most fundamental of all forms, and believed to be the source of all other forms. Plato uses the analogy of the sun to explain its role, suggesting that just as the sun makes things visible and enables sight, the Form of the Good provides intelligibility and knowledge to the intelligible realm.

The lifetime effort of a philosopher (a "wisdom lover") is to pursue and gain knowledge of this ultimate Form of the Good through reason (logos). It is also through reason that one can gain knowledge — cultivate virtues — of care, respect, patience, commitment, etc. that lead us to the ultimate Good.

The drive to knowledge is therefore not acquiring and hoarding of data and information, but a process of continuous discovery, awe and wonder, and true understanding and appreciation of what has been set up prior to our bodily existence.

To know is to love, Platonic style.