They lie on beds and talk about love and beauty. Their speeches follow one another, sometimes responding to each other, because there are several loves and several ways of desiring Beauty. To these men living in a time and place where the education of boys is inseparable from the sexuality which regulates the relationship between master and disciple, a foreigner, Diotima, opposes a feminine model of transmission of knowledge. In this famous dialogue, Socrates sets out the stages of learning for the philosopher capable of detaching himself from the sensible world to become the “lover” par excellence who guides the “beloved” in his quest for the True and the Beautiful. Special report: love 1. Conversion through love: the quest for unity 2. The pronouns of love: I, You, We 3. The reasons for love: understand, explain, justify