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Why Socrates believed that sexual desire is the first step towards righteousness

Can sexual desire lead us to something that transcends the physical act? Socrates seemed to think so. In Plato’s Symposium, Socrates recalls the words of his apparent teacher of erotics, the priestess Diotima of Mantinea, who instructed him that lust was the first rung on a ladder leading upwards towards an appreciation of the form of beauty itself and, further, to morality and virtue.

Video by BBC Radio 4 and The Open University

Script: Nigel Warburton

Animator: Andrew Park

7 October 2016
Photo of a hand holding an ornate tarot card with a decorative illustration, two other cards on a black surface in the background.

videoDesign and fashion

Beyond fortune-telling – the enduring beauty and allure of tarot

16 minutes

Painting of philosophers gathered in a grand classical building, featuring figures in colourful robes with an archway framing the sky in the background.

videoHistory of ideas

How to read ‘The School of Athens’ – a triumph of Renaissance art

25 minutes

Photo of a man in a colourful patterned shirt lying in water looking upwards with a focused expression.

videoArt

Finding the spirit of Haiti through a tour of its contemporary art

20 minutes

Illustration of a blue dragonfly, a green leaf insect and a brown butterfly wing on a light background.

videoHistory of science

Insect aesthetics – long viewed as pests, in the 16th century bugs became beautiful

8 minutes

Painting of a vast landscape featuring rocky hills, a woman with a child and distant snow-capped mountains under a cloudy sky.

videoNature and landscape

After independence, Mexico was in search of identity. These paintings offered a blueprint

15 minutes

Illustration of an ancient Greek temple with the golden ratio spiral overlay, featuring bright colours and clear skies.

videoMathematics

Spiral into the ‘golden ratio’ – and separate the myths from the maths

4 minutes

Vintage photo of people erecting tall structures in a tropical setting with palm trees and a thatched building.

videoArt

A young Rockefeller collects art on a fateful journey to New Guinea

7 minutes

Photo of a modern house built over a waterfall, surrounded by dense green forest and a rocky stream.

videoArchitecture

A lush tour of Fallingwater – the Frank Lloyd Wright design that changed architecture

14 minutes

Abstract painting of textured forms resembling fibres and foliage overlaid on an antique map background.

videoArt

Defying classification, fantastical artworks reframe the racism of Carl Linnaeus

8 minutes