Does It Desire What It Has?
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Socrates — τοῦτο μὲν τοίνυν, εἰπεῖν τὸν Σωκράτη, φύλαξον παρὰ σαυτῷ μεμνημένος ὅτου· τοσόνδε δὲ εἰπέ, πότερον ὁ Ἔρως ἐκείνου οὗ ἔστιν ἔρως, ἐπιθυμεῖ αὐτοῦ ἢ οὔ;
Agathon — πάνυ γε, φάναι.
Socrates — πότερον ἔχων αὐτὸ οὗ ἐπιθυμεῖ τε καὶ ἐρᾷ, εἶτα ἐπιθυμεῖ τε καὶ ἐρᾷ, ἢ οὐκ ἔχων;
Agathon — οὐκ ἔχων, ὡς τὸ εἰκός γε, φάναι.
Socrates — σκόπει δή, εἰπεῖν τὸν Σωκράτη, ἀντὶ τοῦ εἰκότος εἰ ἀνάγκη οὕτως, τὸ ἐπιθυμοῦν ἐπιθυμεῖν οὗ ἐνδεές ἐστιν, ἢ μὴ
Then keep this, by you, remembering of what; and tell me just this much: does Eros desire that of which he is love, or not? Certainly, he said. Does he desire and love it while having that which he desires, or not having it? Not having it, in all likelihood, he said. Consider then, said Socrates, instead of the likely, whether it must be so: the desiring thing desires what it is in want of, or not?
Socrates tells Agathon to hold that answer in mind and answer one more thing: does Eros desire the very thing of which it is love? Yes. And does it desire that thing while already having it, or while not having it? Agathon says, reasonably, while not having it. Socrates presses past 'reasonably' to necessity: mustn't the desiring thing desire precisely what it lacks? The sentence runs into 200b.
That refusal is the discipline of Platonic argument — the interlocutor is not allowed to grant a thing loosely and keep his escape. And the conclusion is devastating for the preceding speeches: if to desire is to lack, then Eros, the desirer, cannot be the possessor of beauty and goodness that Agathon and the others crowned. The god of love is defined by what he does not have. Diotima will later soften this into something fertile — Eros as the child of Poverty and Resource, forever between having and not-having — but the hard logical core is set right here.
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