Transcript of Lecture on Plato's Symposium

A lecture on Plato's Symposium

0. Introduction

If you feel unfulfilled in your romantic life, whether it's because you're struggling to find someone, or maybe you're in a relationship but feel like there must be something more, then this is the book for you. Plato's Symposium is the greatest treatise on love in the Western canon. And it'll teach you not just what you're doing wrong, but give you an alternative path to satisfy your deepest erotic yearnings.

I returned to the Symposium myself after meeting an amazing girl earlier this year in an intense romantic encounter. And if it weren't for this book, I don't think I would have even understood what I was going through and what was at stake. How and whom to love is one of the most consequential decisions you will ever make in your life. If you get this right, you could end up with an angel who elevates your life to a level you didn't think was possible. But if you get this wrong, you could waste the best years of your life suing your worst enemy over the custody of children who've come to hate you. Do not underestimate just how good and how bad love can make your life. But fortunately, Plato has given us a guide about how to get love right.

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1. Modern Culture Does Not Appreciate Beauty

When people try to diagnose what has gone wrong with modern dating, modern love, a common answer is that we care way too much about physical beauty. Whether it's plastic surgery, distorting standards, whether it's social media, unrealistic expectations, body dysmorphia. The critique is it's only because we care so much about beauty, because we're so beauty obsessed, that we care so much about sex and miss the deeper connections.

Before I read the symposium and I thought who a true lover of beauty was, I thought about Tom in Tom and Jerry when he sees a pretty she-cat. His pupils turn into little hearts and then his eyes pop out of his sockets like little springs. And for the entire episode, all he does is lust after the she-cat. That's who I thought a true lover of beauty was. Plato, of course, flips this narrative on its head.