Higher Love in The Symposium and Confessions

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…The reason that Augustine believed that love was not a stepping stone to higher reality was because he had come into contact with the wrong type of love. His first impression of love was what made him discard the possibility of love being a part of the progression to spirituality that Socrates spoke of. Had he been able to see beyond just the sexual tendencies of love, he might have given the emotion more credence.