What Is Platonic Love in Simple Words?

Platonic love, a concept pondered by thinkers, writers, and hopeless romantics for millennia: what does it signify? At its core, Platonic love describes a profound non-romantic bond between two people who prize each other’s attributes, appreciate them, and comprehend them deeply. Unlike romantic love, which is frequently defined by fervor and wanting, platonic love does not encompass sexual longing or infatuation. It goes beyond relationships’ shallow facets and concentrates on closeness, emotional intimacy, and mind-to-mind connection. Let’s break it down further.

Plato’s philosophy considers love, known as Eros in Greek, to be much more complicated than romance or sexual desire. In works such as Symposium and Phaedrus, Plato examines how love is important for striving toward truth and beauty. 

For Plato, love has two sides: wanting physical beauty and craving connection on an intellectual level so you can better understand things together. The Symposium shows this duality when speakers discuss different aspects of love—everything from lust to something purely spiritual.

For Plato, physical attraction is only the beginning of love. It acts like a doorway, leading someone who desires beautiful individuals towards appreciating beauty itself, in all its abstract wonder.

In this metaphorical description of love’s growth, love starts with only one beautiful body and eventually leads to loving all beautiful bodies. Finally, one recognizes beauty itself in its pure form—and loves it.

Plato also suggests that love is a basic desire for goodness and beauty; it’s not just about wanting pleasure from someone’s looks or company. Rather, there is something godlike about it because it can lift our souls closer to truths about everything! 

According to Plato, love helps us become noble people with worthwhile lives as we move toward goodness and beauty.

The Ladder of Love

Plato’s analogy for the progression of love towards a truer beauty, which he calls the “Ladder of Love,” is presented in his dialogue Symposium. This ladder provides a structure for how love develops from its most basic physical manifestation to something abstract and even divine.

At the bottom of the ladder is desire purely based on looks; here, one only has eyes for another’s body because it looks good. But Plato suggests this can open people up to finding more things beautiful. 

The next rung sees individuals appreciate all attractive bodies, not just one: by broadening their appreciation in this way, they move beyond possessiveness toward loving physical beauty in general.

Afterward, the person starts valuing beautiful minds more than appearances and appreciates the importance of being connected intellectually and spiritually rather than physically. This shows a major change as they now care more for virtues and someone’s character.

As they climb the ladder, they also learn to appreciate beautiful laws and ways of doing things: seeing harmony between people as beautiful, fairness in society, or even how well-organized something is.

The very top step of the ladder is the love of the Form of Beauty itself: something that never changes, is always there, and is always true—not just something pretty one day but ugly the next! It does not mean liking pretty shapes or colors selfishly. Rather, it means loving beauty everywhere you see it because you think it shows truth, too.

Ancient Greek society placed great importance on the connection between a lover (erastes) and the object of their affection (eromenos), seeing it as a way to gain knowledge and grow morally. This idea is explored at length in the works of Plato, who examines how these relationships can encourage people to be good and seek wisdom.

Plato does not stick with the usual meaning of this kind of love. Instead, he presents an idealized version where physical desire takes a back seat to learning from one another.

We frequently see Plato’s fascination with this Platonic concept in his dialogues. He suggests that the relationship can spur individuals toward both goodness and the quest for knowledge. Typically, one person in such pairings is older—and thus has more life experience—and earnestly desires something beautiful inside their younger counterpart to flourish or grow.

However, Plato takes this desire further than just physical attraction. He suggests that both people in the relationship should use this feeling as a reason to try and move closer to perfect beauty and goodness.

Plato thinks that if you really admire somebody and are helping them on their way towards becoming good and wise (which is what he means by guiding them up the ladder), then your relationship with each other will be one based on mutual respect. Furthermore, both of you will want to live like that.

In this way, Plato argues that love itself has an educative power that helps souls (or minds) grow toward truths about themselves and the world around them! In this view, love transforms all human relationships from being primarily about desiring together into something higher.

In Plato’s Phaedrus, love is intimately associated with the immortality of the soul and the soul’s journey toward truth and beauty. Love, according to Plato, can be a kind of “divine madness” necessary if the soul is to rise and grasp higher things—things that connect it to the gods themselves.

This isn’t a bad sort of madness. On the contrary, it lifts people out of their dull normality into an exalted world beyond rational understanding. They are moved by forces greater than themselves—just as prophets or mystics are when they say God has taken them over.

Plato suggests that this divine madness should not be confused with garden-variety craziness. Rather, it is an otherworldly blessing that enables souls to recall what they knew about perfect beauty and goodness before they were born: in other words, essential truths that go far beyond everyday appearances.

As per Plato, love serves as a trigger that reminds the soul of its encounter with Forms in an earlier existence and prompts it to yearn for the beauty and truth it once experienced because the soul is immortal.

Because of this desire for lost knowledge and goodness—brought back to mind by love, says Plato—individuals are encouraged to try reaching higher planes of understanding and living as they seek out what is truly worthwhile (the divine).

Plato’s idea suggests that love isn’t just about liking someone a lot or feeling physically close to them. Instead, he sees it as a journey that can help people think deeply about philosophy (how we know things) and spirituality (what things mean in a context beyond ourselves). 

It proposes that through loving someone, we not only might get closer to immortality but also come nearer to knowing absolutely true things because we once saw them for ourselves.

Plato believed that love is connected to wanting what is good. He thought love’s power drives people who want to live with virtue and justice. If we understand this idea, love can help us change for the better.

For Plato, the Good is central. It shows how love can transform us because, through love, we can move towards truths and ideals that give life meaning.

The Good, for Plato, is the highest reality. It does not change and provides a foundation for goodness and ethics. Knowing about something ultimately means knowing how it relates to the Good. Everything beneficial or desirable stems from it.

Within this philosophical system, individuals feel moved by love to connect themselves with the Good: they yearn for truth, beauty, and righteousness—values associated with goodness—that go beyond their own wants or needs. This longing affects more than just their thoughts or feelings; it also influences one’s character—who they are—and how they act in day-to-day life.

In Plato’s philosophy, the Form of the Good holds a position similar to that of the Form of Beauty. It is considered an utmost perfect ideal that people should strive to understand and embrace completely.

Love serves as a mentor for this journey, encouraging an intense desire within individuals to improve themselves morally and acquire virtues such as wisdom, courage, moderation, and justice. Love inspires people to lead ethical lives that promote social well-being and harmony.

Plato sees love not as something confined to an individual’s private life; instead, it is crucial for understanding what makes us human and how we can be happy. Love leads people towards philosophical inquiry about goodness itself: What does it mean? How can we live by its standards? How might the world become more virtuous and harmonious?

Platonic love is a deep affection between people that doesn’t involve physical attraction or longing. Instead, it’s about being close emotionally and mentally and having things in common.

The idea of Platonic love dates back to the ancient Greek philosopher Plato, who believed that a loving relationship should be based on fostering each other’s soul or mind. 

When you have this kind of love for someone, you care about them deeply and value their well-being, but not because you want them to be your partner or lover—though you might still call them “the love of my life” or say “I adore them.” There’s just no romantic or sexual fulfillment expected.

This type of bond also appreciates how beautiful it can be for two people to connect in such a way that they help each other grow personally and morally, perhaps even towards shared goals or aims.

By having these sorts of connections, we’re encouraged not only to self-improve but also to gain more wisdom about ourselves and everything around us—something that might make our lives richer overall!