Why are so many people unhappy, even leading lives of "quiet desperation"? The view that is expressed in many Platonic dialogues is that many people lack awareness of what they actually want. If they knew what truly benefited them, they would already be pursuing that end, embarked on a journey to happiness, wholeness, and enlightenment. In Plato's dialogues, intense yearning (eros), the type of wanting that Greek society most often associated with sexual desire, often serves as a metaphor for an innate craving for happiness, but his use of the language of passion and yearning goes beyond mere imagery.

This book focuses on three Platonic dialogues that address the question of human desire: the Symposium, Lysis, and Phaedrus. Each of the three dialogues treats desire in different contexts. For instance, the Phaedrus examines yearning in terms of immortality of soul, discourse, and writing, while the Symposium treats the same subject from the viewpoint of mortal life, an intermediary, and speech. This work about Plato, then, investigates the aims and objects of human desire, the ways in which humans can identify what they most need, the likelihood of realizing their goals, and the prospect of whether they ever cease to desire.

Steven Lowenstam was a Professor of Classics at the University of Oregon.