In Plato’s Symposium, a group of intellectuals and artists give speeches in praise of the god Eros. The speakers engage in a playful competition with one another, showing off their wit, cultivation, and eloquence. Each articulates a different conception of Eros and his role in the human, divine, and cosmic realms. In Socrates’ speech, philosophic desire takes center stage. Socrates focuses on two key desires: the desire for immortality and the metaphysical desire for the Forms. Both aim at something beyond the human, but they differ in key ways. I will examine both of these desires and show how they work together in the life of the philosopher.

In its most basic sense, the desire for immortality is a desire for an everlasting self. The Greeks understood immortality in terms of living like the gods.