– Leon Kass, The Hungry Soul<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n In The Hungry Soul<\/em>, Dr. Leon Kass accentuates the neediness of the human form and portrays it as an empty chamber in need of filling. This vacancy, he says, is caused by the potential that exists within us, \u201cincluding our capacity for self-development, growth, self-maintenance, self-healing, and reproduction\u201d (Kass 60). In The<\/em> Symposium<\/em>, Socrates attempts to reconcile this need and views this capacity as more of a deficiency in need of completion. He believes that it is this sense of incompleteness that motivates our natural pursuit of satisfaction and pleasure and that deeper feelings such as love and desire are often intertwined with this pursuit. The reason for this is \u201cdesire and love are directed at what [we] don\u2019t have, what isn\u2019t there, and what we need\u201d (Plato 35, 200e), which means that the loved (which in this context is referring to the one who is adored) embodies qualities that the lover (the one who adores the loved) longs to possess, such as goodness and wisdom. In Dialogue on the Infinity of Love<\/em>, author Tullia d\u2019Aragona refers to this type of connection as \u201chonest love\u201d because the transformation of oneself into the object of one\u2019s love is the principal aim (90). However, she argues that this kind of love is generated by both reason and<\/em> desire because although the transformation is taking place on a spiritual level, the lover will still yearn for a bodily union \u201cin order to effect a total identification with [their] beloved\u201d (d\u2019Aragona 90). Not only does this suggest that desire does indeed play at least a secondary role in the merging of these two forms, but also that there is a transformation process within her theory that needs to be explained. The erotic-educational relationship outlined in The Symposium <\/em>can lend support in this matter. Plato\u2019s portrayal of the teacher\/pupil alliance is generated by both hunger and reason, and, similarly, d\u2019Aragona\u2019s vision of love is moved by the pressure and intensity of two converging forms that are diametric in quality. By rooting d\u2019Aragona\u2019s dialogue in Plato\u2019s theory of the erotic-educational relationship as well as Kass\u2019s more contemporary explanation deepening the meaning of the educational relationship and that which propels it. <\/p>\n\n\n In The<\/em> Symposium<\/em>, one of Plato\u2019s main characters, Diotima, explores this transformation in her speech praising Eros and describes it as an ascension toward a higher understanding of beauty. For this process to be successful, however, the pupil in need of the knowledge of beauty must follow a logical path that requires the guidance of an educator who will assist them through successive stages of understanding. The pupil begins with a narrow conception of beauty based solely on what is visible. The guide then helps their pupil realize that \u201cthe beauty of any one body is closely related to that of another . . . and that it is very foolish not to regard the beauty of all bodies as one and the same\u201d (Plato 48, 210a-210c). Once the pupil has grasped this rudimentary concept, they will be able to sense the shallowness of their former desire for one specific body type and learn to discern general examples of beauty from specific ones. Diotima says that since this lesson will lead the pupil to value minds more highly than bodies, they will be inspired to seek wise partners to mate with intellectually so that they may give birth to higher discourse. In the final stage, the guide must lead their pupil toward forms of knowledge and help them to see the beauty in these forms. If successful, this stage will instill a lifelong love of knowledge in the pupil, who will desire to give birth to many beautiful discussions, thoughts, and even \u201ctrue virtue\u201d (Plato 48, 210c-210d). Although Diotima\u2019s theory is valuable insofar as it illustrates the role of reason in the pupil\u2019s inner transformation, it does not explain the role that desire plays in this educational relationship or the more primal instincts powering it.<\/p>\n\n\n Socrates helps us to identify some of these urges through his examination of the nature of love in The Symposium<\/em>, helping us to detect the eroticism fueling educational relationships. To do this, he focuses our attention, first, on the lover (pupil), emphasizing the levels of need at play, and argues that \u201cdesire is directed at something you need and that if you don\u2019t need something you don\u2019t desire it\u201d (Plato 34, 200a-200b). By including the concept of \u201cdesire\u201d in his premise, Socrates is acknowledging the bodily hunger that is also driving this quest for knowledge and the Good, which helps us to rationalize the \u201ccorporeal union\u201d desired by lovers within d\u2019Aragona\u2019s theory. Given the fact that corporeal fusion is literally impossible, if the main goal of the pupil (the lover) is to transform themselves into one who has already experienced the ascent (the educator\/loved one), then an unfulfilled craving to somehow ingest the loved one (metaphorically speaking) will persist in the lover. Since penetration, either physical or spiritual, is one way to merge two human bodies, the hungry\/deficient soul will feel an intense need to engage in these kinds of intercourse with the soul that best embodies the things it senses it lacks. Within d\u2019Aragona\u2019s model, the object of one\u2019s love is best understood as a sort of experienced educator who possesses truths the pupil is searching for. Christopher Gill, in his introductory notes on The Symposium<\/em>, thinks that this type of intense, emotional partnership is most likely to charge the erotic drive that can keep the transformative quality alive in educational relationships (xxxv). Here, the \u201ctransformative quality\u201d that Gill alludes to is the spiritual<\/em> transformation of the lover (xxxv). Moreover, within these parameters, we can understand the lover\u2019s journey as both a fall (into love) and an ascent (toward the truth), which may better communicate the diametric and often poetic nature of love.<\/p>\n\n\n In The Hungry Soul<\/em>, Kass examines the roots of this love and the tensions that have arisen as a result of our heightened powers as a species. He says that although our tremendous cognitive capacity is largely an outgrowth of our upright posture, it is still wise to regard ourselves as animals when making inquiries into our nature as a species (Kass 75). He says that by incorporating knowledge of our primitive form into our debates about human nature, we can more honestly consider the part that fear, hunger, thirst, and lust play in our actions and how these instincts impact our more \u201ccivilized\u201d experiences and relationships (Kass 77). Kass believes that it is, above all, the self-awareness of our capacity for development that leads to our intrinsic yearning for \u201cboth need and independence, for mutuality and separation, for engagement and detachment, for commonality and distinctiveness, [and] for harmony and opposition\u201d (77). Other animal species are not experiencing this tension because their desires are not accompanied by the same degree of self-awareness and thus awareness of what one lacks. Since human beings are aware of their capacity for intellectual growth, they are thus drawn to partners who present an intellectual challenge for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Ficino\u2019s commentary on The<\/em> Symposium<\/em>, love is described as a combination of a certain \u201cpoverty and plenty\u201d because lovers \u201cpartly have and have not what they seek\u201d (191). This definition of love supports d\u2019Aragona\u2019s theory because it reflects love\u2019s overall goal of attaining the wholeness referenced in the conclusion of her dialogue while acknowledging the separate identity and configuration of each part. Moreover, since Ficino acknowledges what the lover \u201cpartly has,\u201d he is recognizing a level of sameness often found in lovers that many theories neglect, mostly because it is too complicated to theorize. In The Symposium<\/em>, Plato\u2019s character, Aristophanes, also believes that many people have failed to explain the power of Love (Eros) and says:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Our human race can only achieve happiness if love reaches its conclusion and each of us finds [their] loved one and restores [their] original nature. If this is the ideal, under present circumstances what comes closest to it must be the best: that is to find a loved one who naturally fits your own character. If we want to praise the god who is responsible for this, we would rightly praise Love\u2026he lead[s] us towards what is naturally close to us. (Plato 26, 193c-193d)<\/p>\n\n\n When Aristophanes refers to our \u201coriginal nature\u201d in this quote, he is referring to a conjoined condition that he believes our species originated from before we were \u201ccut in half like flatfish\u201d (Plato 24, 191d). Because of this, he says, human beings have within them an intrinsic desire for each other to \u201cheal [this] wound in human nature\u201d (Plato 24, 191d). Not only does this theory align with Ficino\u2019s argument, but it also supports d\u2019Aragona\u2019s initial definition of love, which is \u201ca desire to enjoy with union what is truly beautiful or what seems beautiful to the lover\u201d (69). Her distinction between \u201cwhat is truly beautiful\u201d and \u201cwhat seems to be beautiful\u201d invites us to contemplate the relative quality of love and the question of whether \u201cthe Good\u201d must remain, at least in part, subjective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Inquiry into past theories about love reveals that the quest for wisdom remains an honourable and worthy pursuit. Rather than denying the carnal urges associated with teacher\/pupil partnerships, Socrates instead celebrates the eroticism that is tangled up with the desire for learning and knowing and the positions he has enjoyed in educational bonding. For Socrates, logos <\/em>(reasoned speech)between two healthy souls is a kind of spiritual penetration that can bring intellectual fulfillment during these sessions of intercourse and uses dialogue to demonstrate the role of rhetoric in reproduction. Ancient philosophical dialogues on love are important texts to remember because they contain forgotten knowledge of the forms that can help us develop more complete theories on the topics that enhance the experience of our academic ascension and move us closer toward the light. If \u201cfalling into\u201d our loved one is the only thing that may hurt us in this pursuit, let us be courageous enough to embark on the educational journey anyway to see just how high it may take us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Works Consulted<\/p>\n\n\n\n d\u2019Aragona, Tullia. Dialogue on the Infinity of Love<\/em>. Edited and Translated by Rinaldina Russell and Bruce Merry. The University of Chicago Press, pp. 69-90.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ficino, Marsillo. \u201cSixth Speech.\u201d Commentary on Plato\u2019s Symposium, translated by Sears Reynolds Jayne, University of Missouri, 1944, p. 191.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kass, Leon. The Hungry Soul: Eating and the Perfecting of our Nature<\/em>. Toronto, Free Press, 1994.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Plato. The Symposium<\/em>. Translated by Christopher Gill, Penguin Books, 1999. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Heather Sakaki \u201cRather, nature rightly understood might turn out to be a suggestive teacher.\u201d – Leon Kass, The Hungry Soul In The Hungry Soul, Dr. Leon Kass accentuates the … Continue reading “The Erotic-Educational Relationship: An Infinite Fall and Ascent”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3287,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2025-issue","category-essays"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/compassrose\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/compassrose\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/compassrose\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/compassrose\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3287"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/compassrose\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=975"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/compassrose\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/975\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1068,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/compassrose\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/975\/revisions\/1068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/compassrose\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/compassrose\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/compassrose\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/compassrose\/files\/2025\/05\/proxy-image-2-1.jpg\")
<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n