Immortality for the Mortal

Erôs in Plato's Symposium

Abstract

My claim here is that, as to the two characters of Erôs "intermediate" and "procreation", the former expresses its character of desire distinguished from its object-thing and that the latter is the purpose (not the object-thing) of this desire. And the crucial points in this formula are: 1) it is not "right opinion" but "philosopher" that exemplifies the "intermediate" between ignorance and wisdom which expresses the desire proper to Erôs; 2) the "procreation" which is the final purpose of Erôs is not a succession of things of the same kind but the action of procreation itself (i.e. the true virtue).