Tali Folkins
@platonicsoul.bsky.social
Independent scholar of love in the Platonic tradition
Pinned
Tali Folkins
@platonicsoul.bsky.social
· Nov 18
Platonic love can change your life! (Ep. 1)
YouTube video by Platonic Soul
youtu.be
First of my series kicking off an exploration of Platonic love--the REAL Platonic love, from the dialogues and unwritten teachings of Plato and from the writings of his many followers through the centuries.
Even at the very climax of his most important work on love, Plato blends the humorous with the sublime. So are we meant to take him seriously?
youtu.be/HWDKcKTwLT4
youtu.be/HWDKcKTwLT4
Can we take Platonic love seriously? (Ep. 78)
YouTube video by Platonic Soul
youtu.be
November 23, 2025 at 3:47 PM
Even at the very climax of his most important work on love, Plato blends the humorous with the sublime. So are we meant to take him seriously?
youtu.be/HWDKcKTwLT4
youtu.be/HWDKcKTwLT4
It’s my conviction that the main motivation of Plato was love, and so the goal driving his whole system is the sharing of deep or reasoned hope. The ladder of eros encapsulates Plato’s counter to existential despair, in both its forms.
youtu.be/-ta4weVDKZY
youtu.be/-ta4weVDKZY
Swimming in the sea of beauty: How Platonic ecstasy fuels the 2 basic human hopes (Ep. 77)
YouTube video by Platonic Soul
youtu.be
November 9, 2025 at 4:45 PM
It’s my conviction that the main motivation of Plato was love, and so the goal driving his whole system is the sharing of deep or reasoned hope. The ladder of eros encapsulates Plato’s counter to existential despair, in both its forms.
youtu.be/-ta4weVDKZY
youtu.be/-ta4weVDKZY
“Is love so fragile and the heart so hollow?” The sense of being baffled by what we want is a deeply significant and often a deeply difficult moment of human inner life. But it’s not a moment we need to get stuck in. Diotima reaches down to us with a way out and up.
youtu.be/TEIWGvLFPrM
youtu.be/TEIWGvLFPrM
‘The final and highest mystery’: Approaching the ladder of love (Ep. 76)
YouTube video by Platonic Soul
youtu.be
October 26, 2025 at 5:03 PM
“Is love so fragile and the heart so hollow?” The sense of being baffled by what we want is a deeply significant and often a deeply difficult moment of human inner life. But it’s not a moment we need to get stuck in. Diotima reaches down to us with a way out and up.
youtu.be/TEIWGvLFPrM
youtu.be/TEIWGvLFPrM
Our knowledge of the good is in some sense kinetic; it is in and through the action not of some separated reasoning mind but of the whole self, this human concretion of body and psyche. This idea is at the heart of Platonic subversiveness and Platonic hope.
How Plato keeps us from getting stuck in a moment (Ep. 75)
YouTube video by Platonic Soul
youtu.be
October 12, 2025 at 3:44 PM
Our knowledge of the good is in some sense kinetic; it is in and through the action not of some separated reasoning mind but of the whole self, this human concretion of body and psyche. This idea is at the heart of Platonic subversiveness and Platonic hope.
The prophetess Diotima continues to initiate Socrates into the mysteries of eros. What all humans—including all philosophers—really want to do is to beget/give birth in the beautiful, she says. What could she possibly mean? And what might that mean for us?
youtu.be/khOxhqzEJ3Q
youtu.be/khOxhqzEJ3Q
Diotima throws us a curve ball (Ep. 74)
YouTube video by Platonic Soul
youtu.be
September 27, 2025 at 10:07 PM
The prophetess Diotima continues to initiate Socrates into the mysteries of eros. What all humans—including all philosophers—really want to do is to beget/give birth in the beautiful, she says. What could she possibly mean? And what might that mean for us?
youtu.be/khOxhqzEJ3Q
youtu.be/khOxhqzEJ3Q
R.I.P. Jonathan Lear, psychoanalyst and philosopher.
leiterreports.com/2025/09/22/i...
leiterreports.com/2025/09/22/i...
In Memoriam: Jonathan Lear (1948-2025)
I’m very sorry to report that my colleague Jonathan Lear died this morning. During his long career, he taught at Cambridge University, Yale University, and the University of Chicago, an…
leiterreports.com
September 23, 2025 at 2:13 AM
R.I.P. Jonathan Lear, psychoanalyst and philosopher.
leiterreports.com/2025/09/22/i...
leiterreports.com/2025/09/22/i...
Heidegger was wrong. Western philosophy’s forgetting of Being is traceable not to Plato, but to a misreading—a forgetting—of Plato.
youtu.be/hLJeaWNUkaQ
youtu.be/hLJeaWNUkaQ
The biggest mistake we make about Plato (Ep. 73)
YouTube video by Platonic Soul
youtu.be
September 14, 2025 at 12:23 PM
Heidegger was wrong. Western philosophy’s forgetting of Being is traceable not to Plato, but to a misreading—a forgetting—of Plato.
youtu.be/hLJeaWNUkaQ
youtu.be/hLJeaWNUkaQ
How reason and passion can work in tandem to raise us above our comfortable numbness
youtu.be/wkk60NDY0EI
youtu.be/wkk60NDY0EI
How we become better and happier through our feelings (Ep. 72)
YouTube video by Platonic Soul
youtu.be
August 31, 2025 at 5:12 PM
How reason and passion can work in tandem to raise us above our comfortable numbness
youtu.be/wkk60NDY0EI
youtu.be/wkk60NDY0EI
Oneness as the ultimate object of human desire
Why are the Platonists so fond of sexual language? (Ep. 71)
YouTube video by Platonic Soul
youtu.be
August 17, 2025 at 4:12 PM
Oneness as the ultimate object of human desire
Love will never leave us alone, because it makes its presence felt at every moment of our lives. Eros in the Platonic tradition is not just one emotion among many but rather the principle of emotion.
youtu.be/k9vd1y9GeY8
youtu.be/k9vd1y9GeY8
Why life is like a prism for your love (Ep. 70)
YouTube video by Platonic Soul
youtu.be
August 3, 2025 at 2:07 PM
Love will never leave us alone, because it makes its presence felt at every moment of our lives. Eros in the Platonic tradition is not just one emotion among many but rather the principle of emotion.
youtu.be/k9vd1y9GeY8
youtu.be/k9vd1y9GeY8
Though Platonic love may often be taken as something tame and harmless, love in the real Platonic tradition is about the most dangerous thing there is—even though it wants nothing but the good. This is why it's so important for human beings to know the good.
youtu.be/QAWFDuF44G4
youtu.be/QAWFDuF44G4
Why love is the cause of evil—and why that’s a good thing (Ep. 69)
YouTube video by Platonic Soul
youtu.be
July 20, 2025 at 6:19 PM
Though Platonic love may often be taken as something tame and harmless, love in the real Platonic tradition is about the most dangerous thing there is—even though it wants nothing but the good. This is why it's so important for human beings to know the good.
youtu.be/QAWFDuF44G4
youtu.be/QAWFDuF44G4
The theory of unconscious desire that Plato develops so brilliantly and beautifully in the Phaedrus is key to the solution of the universal problem of human self-dividedness.
How Platonic love solves the great human problem (Ep. 68)
YouTube video by Platonic Soul
youtu.be
July 6, 2025 at 3:55 PM
The theory of unconscious desire that Plato develops so brilliantly and beautifully in the Phaedrus is key to the solution of the universal problem of human self-dividedness.
Are some of us more able than others to see the good and to thereby live the best life?
youtu.be/Yxf8OlrwlNg
youtu.be/Yxf8OlrwlNg
Is life spiritually unfair? (Ep. 67)
YouTube video by Platonic Soul
youtu.be
June 22, 2025 at 3:41 PM
Are some of us more able than others to see the good and to thereby live the best life?
youtu.be/Yxf8OlrwlNg
youtu.be/Yxf8OlrwlNg
Reposted by Tali Folkins
On Not Not Reading DFW after The Yak: Fabula Mirabilis — Eleanor Fuller ( @eleanorfuller.bsky.social )
minorliteratures.com/2025/06/12/o...
minorliteratures.com/2025/06/12/o...
On Not Not Reading DFW after The Yak: Fabula Mirabilis — Eleanor Fuller
Our woman suffers from a certain snobbery. Of the educated. It needs to be made clear that this is not class snobbery since hers is squarely, squarely and firmly, working. Her grandfather and great…
minorliteratures.com
June 12, 2025 at 8:01 AM
On Not Not Reading DFW after The Yak: Fabula Mirabilis — Eleanor Fuller ( @eleanorfuller.bsky.social )
minorliteratures.com/2025/06/12/o...
minorliteratures.com/2025/06/12/o...
Plato’s teaching on love and desire overturns one of the most basic assumptions we bring to life: that the satisfaction of our desire lies chiefly in our setting and attaining objectives for ourselves.
youtu.be/nrOZRsSV6FY
youtu.be/nrOZRsSV6FY
Why objectifying represses you (Ep. 66)
YouTube video by Platonic Soul
youtu.be
June 8, 2025 at 2:06 PM
Plato’s teaching on love and desire overturns one of the most basic assumptions we bring to life: that the satisfaction of our desire lies chiefly in our setting and attaining objectives for ourselves.
youtu.be/nrOZRsSV6FY
youtu.be/nrOZRsSV6FY
Why is there often such a poignancy to homecoming, a sense that the fusion of old and new in it carries in some way the story of existence? Could it be telling us something about how we might live our best lives?
Also in this episode, Plotinus invites us to a choral dance.
youtu.be/LVKOAsCjdUQ
Also in this episode, Plotinus invites us to a choral dance.
youtu.be/LVKOAsCjdUQ
Why our voyaging is a constant homecoming (Ep. 65)
YouTube video by Platonic Soul
youtu.be
June 1, 2025 at 4:29 PM
Why is there often such a poignancy to homecoming, a sense that the fusion of old and new in it carries in some way the story of existence? Could it be telling us something about how we might live our best lives?
Also in this episode, Plotinus invites us to a choral dance.
youtu.be/LVKOAsCjdUQ
Also in this episode, Plotinus invites us to a choral dance.
youtu.be/LVKOAsCjdUQ
Fascinating, poignant portrait of rural life in the late Roman Empire as it transitioned to Christianity, which began of course primarily as a religion of the cities. From Theurgy and the Soul: The Neoplatonism of Iamblichus, by Gregory Shaw
May 29, 2025 at 5:10 PM
Fascinating, poignant portrait of rural life in the late Roman Empire as it transitioned to Christianity, which began of course primarily as a religion of the cities. From Theurgy and the Soul: The Neoplatonism of Iamblichus, by Gregory Shaw
“Is it, then, the centre of the soul, in a way, that we are looking for? Or should one realize that there is something else like a centre in which all ‘centres’ in a way coincide?” — Plotinus
youtu.be/RJBmnox7TXU
youtu.be/RJBmnox7TXU
Does Platonic ecstasy engage a remnant of our infantile consciousness? (Ep. 64)
YouTube video by Platonic Soul
youtu.be
May 25, 2025 at 2:40 PM
“Is it, then, the centre of the soul, in a way, that we are looking for? Or should one realize that there is something else like a centre in which all ‘centres’ in a way coincide?” — Plotinus
youtu.be/RJBmnox7TXU
youtu.be/RJBmnox7TXU
The psyche needs reason to grow its wings back. youtu.be/EkBtKf-lbYY
Why Plato's myth of the fallen psyche isn't just about our lost infancy (Ep. 63)
YouTube video by Platonic Soul
youtu.be
May 18, 2025 at 1:54 PM
The psyche needs reason to grow its wings back. youtu.be/EkBtKf-lbYY
Reposted by Tali Folkins
"I'm in the milk, and the milk's in me!" @platonicsoul.bsky.social quoting Maurice Sendak in his latest episode? Yes indeed! Love it! 💖
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dyp5...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dyp5...
Decoding the mystery of our great unconscious desire (Ep. 62)
YouTube video by Platonic Soul
www.youtube.com
May 13, 2025 at 1:08 PM
"I'm in the milk, and the milk's in me!" @platonicsoul.bsky.social quoting Maurice Sendak in his latest episode? Yes indeed! Love it! 💖
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dyp5...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dyp5...
Does a famous Platonic myth speak to a buried memory from our earliest infancy?
youtu.be/Dyp5rvvO658
youtu.be/Dyp5rvvO658
Decoding the mystery of our great unconscious desire (Ep. 62)
YouTube video by Platonic Soul
youtu.be
May 12, 2025 at 11:34 AM
Does a famous Platonic myth speak to a buried memory from our earliest infancy?
youtu.be/Dyp5rvvO658
youtu.be/Dyp5rvvO658
Beauty is key to the re-integration of the psyche. Beauty is the anti-trauma.
youtu.be/i3SL4b9l0Ws
youtu.be/i3SL4b9l0Ws
Why you need awesome, cathartic encounters with beauty every single day of your life (Ep. 61)
YouTube video by Platonic Soul
youtu.be
May 5, 2025 at 2:03 PM
Beauty is key to the re-integration of the psyche. Beauty is the anti-trauma.
youtu.be/i3SL4b9l0Ws
youtu.be/i3SL4b9l0Ws
That sense of infinite loss, and Plotinus on existential low self-esteem: a misplaced zeal for things and the goals we create for ourselves, rather than that pure radiance which our own souls or personalities somehow speak of and in some way possess. youtu.be/VGnsmFZQfd4
Why we sometimes feel like motherless children (Ep. 60)
YouTube video by Platonic Soul
youtu.be
April 28, 2025 at 10:40 AM
That sense of infinite loss, and Plotinus on existential low self-esteem: a misplaced zeal for things and the goals we create for ourselves, rather than that pure radiance which our own souls or personalities somehow speak of and in some way possess. youtu.be/VGnsmFZQfd4
"A soul that sheds its wings wanders until it lights on something solid."—Plato
For Plato the downfall of the psyche is a certain kind of consciousness—one in which we are making judgements in a way that does not involve the whole, our consciousness of reality as one; it is a thinking that has declared its independence from oneness.
Objectification: The downfall of the psyche (Ep. 59)
YouTube video by Platonic Soul
youtu.be
April 26, 2025 at 4:07 PM
"A soul that sheds its wings wanders until it lights on something solid."—Plato
For Plato the downfall of the psyche is a certain kind of consciousness—one in which we are making judgements in a way that does not involve the whole, our consciousness of reality as one; it is a thinking that has declared its independence from oneness.
Objectification: The downfall of the psyche (Ep. 59)
YouTube video by Platonic Soul
youtu.be
April 20, 2025 at 2:41 PM
For Plato the downfall of the psyche is a certain kind of consciousness—one in which we are making judgements in a way that does not involve the whole, our consciousness of reality as one; it is a thinking that has declared its independence from oneness.