The Ladder of Love by Frisbee Shafter

Richard Shafter: The ladder of love is really an account of a certain kind of creative activity which Socrates thinks will best satisfy our desire for happiness. He says that in order to create some kind of good we need to ensure that we understand what sorts of things are really valuable. We start off by reflecting on what makes beautiful bodies beautiful and then look at the wide sea of beauty until we can understand the source of all beautiful things, he says. Richard Shafter: I think it leads us to such a lofty abstract height this contemplation of ideal beauty that we perhaps need to understand it in its context. It's called a ladder of love because it's a series of attractions to a hierarchy

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