Final answer:
Socrates suggests in Plato's Symposium that the function of eros is to elevate the soul, encouraging the pursuit of truth and beauty, guiding one towards wisdom and the Form of the Good.
Step-by-step explanation:
In Plato's Symposium, Socrates suggests that the function of eros (or love) is a fundamental human drive that seeks beauty and truth, ultimately leading one to the divine and the Form of the Good. The Platonic approach to understanding eros involves probing beyond physical attraction, considering that love is a philosopher's journey towards enlightenment and knowledge of pure forms. Within this framework, love is not merely a desire for physical beauty but is instead a powerful motivation for intellectual and spiritual development, propelling one to seek out and apprehend the nature of true Beauty and Goodness, which exist in their purest forms in a transcendent, unchangeable realm beyond the physical world.
Socrates, acting almost as a philosophical midwife in his dialogues, draws out the essence of love through dialectic reasoning. The role of eros is thus conceived as an elevating force, a conduit through which one can move closer to an understanding of ultimate, unchanging truths, away from the distractions and imperfections of the sensible world. Eros propels the soul towards an appreciation of true beauty and the acquisition of wisdom, embodying the path towards homoiosis theou, or becoming like God, which is at the heart of Plato's philosophical system.