Sexual Desire of Plato's Symposium - Diotima and Alcibiades.
Plato, in the "Speech of Diotima," explains much of human beings' ability to learn to love, as this seems to distinguish them from animals. Socrates is told that a person must devote himself or herself to the love of beautiful bodies and the cultivation of their own. It is then necessary to view the beauty of people's souls as more valuable than the beauty of their bodies, and to then acquire an appreciation of the beauty of various activities and laws and, "with the result that ... the beauty of bodies is a thing of no importance". (58:210c) Sexuality seems to be referred to here, as a basic and early motivator of a greater and greater ability to perceive and appreciate beauty as the ancient Greeks believed was a most important element of the personal development of the superior person. 6 pgs. 1 source.
