senquezada29 's review for:

The Symposium by Plato

4.0

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So I often wonder about the concept of "love." I noticed that I wonder about it more often when there's an absence of it in my life. Thinking about the absence of it can certainly create resentment and anger, which it has certainly done for me, but it can also create wonder about what "love" is, why it exists, how it develops and where it comes from. With that kind of wonder in mind, I picked up Plato's The Symposium because I saw a quick TikTok about it that suggested it if you wanted to wonder about love from a philosophical perspective. The book did not disappoint. It's basically the story of a group of Greek professionals in the 5th century, B.C. who get together for dinner and to drink and celebrate the success of a poet's recent performance. They all decide to engage in a challenge to see who can give the best explanation of the how they define "love." 7 of the characters each go on in turn to deliver a speech and each disagrees with and/or builds upon the speech of the prior speaker. I was fascinated with the blurred lines between physical and mental love, between homo- and hetero-sexuality, between recognizing love as a god or as a feeling. Each of the speeches definitely made you think about the interpretation and reconsider your own thoughts on the definition of "love." I appreciated how on one hand it was all a bunch of dudes philosophizing about love and the one speech that seemed to gain the most appreciation from the others was Socrates' speech, which he explained the concepts therein were taught to him by a woman. Definitely a good read, but at the end of the day, I'm sad to say, I'm just as lost as ever about the concept of "love." lol.