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The Underlying Notion Of Plato's Symposium

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The Underlying Notion Of Plato's Symposium
The underlying notion of Plato's Symposium is that love lies in the metaxy between good and evil and therefore, contains properties of both. An understanding of this concept will lead to an understanding of love. One must feel the pain that goes along with the pleasure in order to actually be in love. In Plato's Symposium, Alcibiades cannot understand his love for Socrates because he has only felt the pleasures of love and has never experienced the pain of it.
Plato's Symposium is a recollection of conversations between Socrates and a group of friends about the spirit of Love. Socrates asks if "love is of that which a man wants and has not?" (Plato 25) to which Agathon agrees. Then, Socrates asks "[is it] true that love is the love of the
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