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Plato’s Ascent

Love, the soul and the Forms: the dialogues in which Plato describes the mind’s ascent to what truly is.

Beginning. 8 steps

Love

  1. Text

    Symposium

    Plato, tr. Benjamin Jowett, 1871

    Begin with Diotima’s speech, the ladder of love that rises to Beauty itself.

  2. Concept

    Eros

    How longing becomes a path, from Plato to Dionysius and beyond.

  3. Text

    Phaedrus

    Plato, tr. Benjamin Jowett, 1892

    The charioteer, the soul’s wings, and the vision beyond the heavens.

The soul

  1. Text

    Phaedo

    Plato, tr. Benjamin Jowett, 1892

    Philosophy as the practice of dying, and the soul’s kinship with the Forms.

The Good

  1. Text

    The Republic

    Plato, tr. Benjamin Jowett, 1871

    Books VI and VII: the sun, the divided line and the cave.

  2. Concept

    Forms

    What the Forms are, and how later traditions placed them in the divine mind.

The cosmos

  1. Text

    Timaeus

    Plato, tr. Benjamin Jowett, 1892

    The world made by a craftsman looking to the eternal; time as eternity’s image.

The One

  1. Text

    Parmenides

    Plato, tr. Benjamin Jowett, 1892

    Plato’s hardest dialogue, which the Neoplatonists read as their theology of the One.

Cite this entry
Chicago (bibliography)

“Plato’s Ascent.” Reading list. The Library, Unitive Knowledge Society. Last modified November 7, 2026. https://www.unitiveknowledge.org/reading-lists/platos-ascent.

Chicago (note)

“Plato’s Ascent,” reading list, The Library, Unitive Knowledge Society, last modified November 7, 2026, https://www.unitiveknowledge.org/reading-lists/platos-ascent.

MLA

“Plato’s Ascent.” The Library, Unitive Knowledge Society, 7 Nov. 2026, www.unitiveknowledge.org/reading-lists/platos-ascent.

BibTeX
@misc{reading-lists-platos-ascent,
  title = {{Plato’s Ascent}},
  howpublished = {The Library, Unitive Knowledge Society},
  note = {Reading list. Last modified November 7, 2026},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://www.unitiveknowledge.org/reading-lists/platos-ascent}
}

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