Uploaded January 2026 | Updated September 2026, 4 days ago
In Plato’s thought, love is not merely lack, nor simple fulfillment. It is metaxu—the “in-between.”
This reflection explores how Plato’s understanding of eros evolves into the idea of love as a daimon: a mediating spirit between gods and human beings, knowledge and ignorance, teacher and student. Healing, on this view, does not come from mastery alone, but from rediscovering the soul’s source in the divine—an idea deeply unsettling to the modern imagination.
The conversation turns to education itself. What does it mean to teach without imposing doctrine? To care deeply without determining what others must love? In the classroom, love becomes attentiveness: reading the room, inviting questions, and guiding students toward what is genuinely good for them.
At Ralston College, philosophy is not transmission but encounter. This talk reflects on why love—rightly understood—must remain central to both thought and teaching, if education is to be anything more than instruction.
In Plato’s thought, love is not merely lack, nor simple fulfillment. It is metaxu—the “in-between.”
This reflection explores how Plato’s understanding of eros evolves into the idea of love as a daimon: a mediating spirit between gods and human beings, knowledge and ignorance, teacher and student. Healing, on this view, does not come from mastery alone, but from rediscovering the soul’s source in the divine—an idea deeply unsettling to the modern imagination.
The conversation turns to education itself. What does it mean to teach without imposing doctrine? To care deeply without determining what others must love? In the classroom, love becomes attentiveness: reading the room, inviting questions, and guiding students toward what is genuinely good for them.
At Ralston College, philosophy is not transmission but encounter. This talk reflects on why love—rightly understood—must remain central to both thought and teaching, if education is to be anything more than instruction.
