Plato 's Theory Of Love

Symposium is a gathering hosted by Agaton to celebrate his first tragedy award for playwriting. Each of the guests gave a speech about love. The speech dealing with questions about what is love; interpersonal relationships through love; what types of love are worthy of praise; the purpose of love; and others. A series of speech about the love ended by the entry of Alcibiades, known as a wealthy aristocrat of Athens for his good-looking, and political career. He entered the discussion drunkenly supporting by a flute-girl, follow upon his speech about love. His unexpected entrance and speech dramatically changed the mood left from Diotima’s serious dialogue with Socrates about the ideal love. The first five speeches contradicted each other and were reconciled in Diotima’s speech, especially her speech about “Ladder if love” and “love of wisdom ”, which implies the delicate relationship between Alcibiades and Socrates.

Our human nature was not what we always thought of it to be, in simpler times two were made as one. We roamed the earth in unity with our other halves without the burden of trying to find them. However, Zeus did not find this to be in his best interest because of how we behaved so he split each being in two. As a result of this split we must now go about our lives in search of our other half. This is the speech that Aristophanes gave in Plato’s Symposium a book composed of various speeches from many different famous Greek people. Aristophanes’ view of love is compelling because it describes our very human nature to find our love, it justifies the reasoning of why there are different sexualities, and it gives an explanation as to why our bodies are the way that they are today.

Socrates sees love as something that is in between being beautiful and ugly and believes that love is a search for beauty and wisdom. Much like Diotima, Socrates presses Agathon to have him admit that love is not beautiful as it desires beauty, and one does not desire what one already has therefore it is not beautiful. Socrates view contrasts with that of Aristophanes from the benefits of love to the nature of love, as Socrates sees no benefits in something that is not beautiful. Love is seen as primarily a relational property by Socrates that holds between things rather than a desire or a need for another person. Love is not itself beautiful or good or anything specific as much as it is a relation that holds between the beautiful, the good, and those who

In the Symposium Plato places Socrates in a dialogue with the goddess Diotima. She says two things of interest to this paper about love. Firstly, at 206a that humans when they love long to possess the good and do so for ever, and secondly that at 206b that "To love is to bring forth upon the beautiful, both in body and soul (Hamilton 558)." The first statement makes a claim about what love is, a desire to posses the good, and the second a statement about what love does, bring forth the beautiful. I will now briefly analyze both claims.

I contend that Plato 's theories on morality are persuaded by concerns he had about moral theory. Specifically, Plato rejects rationality as the boost of subjectively evaluated self-interest because, had he received such an account, his hypothesis of justice would be liable to reactions which he holds are lethal to the contractarian theory of justice. While detailing a hypothesis to stay inside ethical constraints in some cases disregards the groups of scientific theorizing, Plato maintains to avoid this mistake.

ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊHomoerotic desire, longing, and love in Greek texts are depicted as equally strong or stronger than the heterosexual equivalents.Ê Plato?s philosophers argue over who receives the privilege of sharing a couch with the handsomest of them.Ê Agathon and Pausanius are shown to be affectionate and loyal to each other.Ê Some of the strongest expressions of desire are found in Sappho?s lyric poetry.Ê She speaks of a certain woman as being what she most desires, claiming, ?I?d rather see her comely step, the shining luster of her face than the Lydians? chariots and infantry in armor (16 L-P lines

In Plato’s Symposium, Socrates recalls a speech told by priestess Diotima from Mantinea. In this speech, Diotima counters Socrates’s belief that Love is beautiful and good, scolds him, and tells him that just because something is not beautiful does not mean it has to be ugly. In the same way, just because something is not wise does not mean it has to be ignorant, and so on. In other words, Love is not beautiful nor ugly; it is not immortal nor mortal; it is in between. While discussing Love with Agathon and Phaedrus at a party, Socrates recalls Diotima’s speech and retells it. Socrates portrays Diotima as all-knowing of Love, and refers to her idea that one must ascend in Love, first loving one beautiful body and eventually reaching love for Beauty itself. This implies that the ultimate form of Love cannot be reached without having stepped on the first rung of the ladder, and each one before the next.

In the book,” Plato’s Symposium,” by Plato, who was a philosopher in Greece, he illustrates the dialectic discussion at a party at Agathon’s to celebrate his triumph of his first tragedy. In the Symposium; the guests Phaedrus, an Athenian aristocrat; Pausanias, the legal expert; Eryximachus, a physician; Aristophanes, eminent comic playwright; Agathon ,a tragic poet and host of the banquet; Socrates, eminent philosopher and Plato 's teacher; and Alcibiades, a prominent Athenian statesman, orator and general; discuss their own versions and viewpoints to praise the god of love. First, we have Phaedrus, who starts to say that love is the most ancient of the gods and should be praiseworthy, next we have Eryximachus who states that love affects everything in the universe and that it should be protected, next we have Aristophanes, who states that the reason why love is on earth is because god has split humanity in half and that man should fear the gods and should embrace love to feel whole again, and last we have Socrates who suggests what Diotima explains that love is in the middle of two things or objects and has both characteristics.

In Plato’s work Symposium, Phaedrus, Pausania, Eryximachus, Aristophane and Agathon, each of them presents a speech to either praise or definite Love. Phaedrus first points out that Love is the primordial god; Pausanias brings the theme of “virtue” into the discussion and categorizes Love into “good” one or “bad” one; Eryximachus introduces the thought of “moderation’ and thinks that Love governs such fields as medicine and music; Aristophanes draws attention to the origin and purposes

Plato’s Symposium attempts to define the eclectic theory of love, a theory that is often believed to be the universal principle that guides mankind’s actions. Plato introduces several narratives in the form of a dialogue that seek to characterize this multifaceted theory of Eros. The meaning of love naturally varies in each narrative. Yet, in this dialogue of love, Plato presents a metaphysical approach to understanding the ambiguous meaning of love. Ultimately, Plato values the perennial quest for knowledge above all else. In Symposium, Platonic love is exhibited in the relationship between virtue and desire, as expressed in Diotima’s ladder. Desire is the vehicle, or the means to an end. The six Athenians ultimately present different

Finally, we can appreciate how love, just as any instantiation of our moral framework, comes as embodied in a human ideal – and here we witness the figure of a familiar figure. If as we have seen above Lear considers Socrates as a prime example of someone who strived to achieve humanity, and if to achieve humanity is to become enter in an ever stronger relationship with love as our moral source, it follows that Socrates can be seen – as Lear does – as an ideal of what I shall call an erotic life. This, implies that there is a connection between living the life of the ironist and that of living the life of the eroticist. However, in order to fully explain this link between irony, love, and individuation, we must now consider how Lear describes

In the Symposium, written by Plato, Socrates and others engage in a dialogue in the home of Agathon on love. Instead of "singing the honours" (94) of love like the other participants, Socrates uses a retelling of a discussion that he had with a woman named Diotima to tell the audience of what he perceives to be the truth of love.

if we want to understand the purpose and nature of love then we must refer to Plato’s

Eros, the God of Love, was held in high respect throughout all of ancient Greece due to Love’s contributions to the culture and relationships amongst individuals. However, in Plato Symposium, each guest has their own unique perspective on the role Eros plays. Among those gathered at the Symposium, speeches are offered with anything from exalting words of praise to honest words of criticisms. Pausanias and Agathon, guests at the symposium, are romantic partners, each with their own views on Love. Pausanias’ idea of Love is based off the idea that there are two different types of Love, and he emphasizes the importance of intent and virtue. While Agathon, the more passive of the two, expresses his praise for Eros as an entity and His divinity

Plato’s Symposium is a group of written dialogues in which Plato records speeches from many distinguished men regarding love. One of these men, Socrates, tells a story in which he recalls a conversation he had with Diotima on the subject of beauty. Although Diotima and Socrates made some interesting points concerning the concept of beauty, in a modern interpretation, this passage can be easily read as homophobic. With the incorporation of heteronormative metaphors, the use of a male and a female narrator, and the promotion of what could be classified as unhealthy relationships, Plato’s approach to beauty should not be used in a modern setting due to the dated homophobic concepts.