Unconquered Peaks

Plato’s Symposium offers one of the most sophisticated explorations of love in Western thought. Rather than reducing desire to romance or physical attraction, Plato presents it as a force that shapes character, action, and the mind. Across the dialogue, Phaedrus, Pausanias, Aristophanes, Agathon, Socrates (through Diotima), and Alcibiades offer different perspectives, creating a complex portrait of love that is ethical, philosophical, and intensely human. These speeches reveal how love can inspire courage, cultivate virtue, elevate the soul, and, at times, overwhelm reason. The Republic complements this picture, showing how desire and love intersect with the rational and appetitive elements of the soul, guiding humans toward the good.

Last week we discussed the unspoken truth of editing human genes, and while as we think we are moving forwards in terms of changing organisms and our way of life, the unfortunate reality is the mistaken opposite. Reducing the gene pool and natural evolution are changing our survival traits and certain characteristics that we have adapted over centuries to survive. So really, artificially changing them isn’t as good as we thought…