Can one state an actual fact and yet be wrong in his conclusion? Well, this might be the case with western academics and the supposed championship of homosexuality by Plato.
Many propose that Plato was actually gay-friendly or even anti-heterosexual, basing their argument on some particular parts of his book Symposium. Indeed,in this book, Plato makes the argument that the best kind of love is between people of the same sex. However, these words were written about 2500 years ago, when social norms were fundamentally different from ours.
In the book Laws, Plato addresses the issue of same-sex copulation with the following passage:
“When the nature of male is in communion with that of the female for giving birth, the subsequent pleasure is thought to be according to nature, while that of man to man and woman to woman is against nature and those that commit to this (same sex copulation) they do so from incontinence to pleasures.”
As we see, Plato probably did not approve same-sex copulation. Instead, the contrary appears to be true.
His statement about same-sex love, though, remains unanswered. Why would he be advocating for same-sex love and still not agree with same-sex copulation? Doesn’t love lead to copulation anyway? According to him, no.
You see, Plato advocates that everything we see and feel with our senses is only a copy of something that is absolute, complete, and perfect. This is something he calls an idea. When one falls in love, he actually falls in love with the features and attributes of the person whose features and attributes resemble, to some extent, these ideas. This, in turn, means that people actually fall in love with ideas and not with people.
Under this scope, we may argue that every man (not only homosexuals) can fall in love with the beauty of another man and a woman with the beauty of another woman because they fall in love with beauty itself. We may think that we are in love with the person, but in reality, according to Plato, we long for them because they are portals to the actual objects of our love.
Does this kind of love lead to copulation?
Before we answer this question, we should remind ourselves that in Phaedrus (his second book about love and propaganda), Plato states that beauty is the idea that is the most obvious, and for that reason, it is adored by anyone. There are, however, other ideas that cause much more fierce love. These are justice, prudence, and purity.
Now, would any of us suffer from desperation because a just person refused to participate with us in carnal pleasures? Probably not. Perhaps we would suffer from them rejecting our social company, but probably we would not choose to cooperate with them only due to their virtue of justice. The answer thus is that love doesn’t have to do by default with copulation and carnal pleasures; it has to do by default with ideas (beauty, justice, prudence, purity, etc.).
Let us now return to our original question: what does he mean with his statements that same-sex love is the best kind of love?
As we saw above, he does that having in mind the love of ideas and not the love of bodily urges, which he argues people often mistake for true love. In the case of same-sex love, a man may not be driven by his urge to copulate, and thus, his love is pure, since this love is to the absolute and perfect and not to the body, which is in nature partial and imperfect.
Thus, as one may suspect, the relationship that Plato has in mind when he talks about same-sex love is none other than friendship. Of course, not all friendships are based on a common love for ideas, but those that are, Plato argues, are the best kind of love.
