Platonic Love In Plato's Symposium

Aristophanes views erotic love as a punishment originating from God (Solomon & Higgins, 1991, p. 18). A punishment due to the fact that erotic love involves searching for our soulmate and until we find our missing half, we are incomplete (Solomon & Higgins, 1991, pp. 18-19). Comparatively, Alcibiades views on erotic love is shown in how he longs for his love interest, Socrates. Unfortunately, Alcibiades pursuit of Socrates fails and he experiences being rejected by Socrates (Solomon & Higgins, 1991, pp. 30-31). Thus, representing how erotic love can be cruel and is a risk that can result in feeling pain and suffering. Initially, Socrates view of erotic love started with the idea that we desire love because we lack an object of beauty or goodness (Solomon & Higgins, 1991, p. 22). Through Diotima, Socrates comes to understand that his search for knowledge is inspired by love and as a result, he finds wisdom beautiful (Solomon & Higgins, 1991, pp. 23-24). According to Diotima, she views erotic love as existing somewhere “between ignorance and wisdom” (Solomon & Higgins, 1991, p. 23). Diotima explains to Socrates that the truth about love is the desire for an enduring possession of the good (Solomon & Higgins, 1991, p. 24). According to Diotima, immortality can be accomplished through procreation or creating new ideas to educate the next generation (Solomon & Higgins, 1991, pp. 24-25).

The Symposium in simple words is a drinking party consisting of dinner then discussion. For tonight’s party, they will decide the topic will be on the god of love. The whole group mainly focuses on the love relationship between two men. Each speaking about what they think about love. Focusing more on Pausanias speech he talks differently about his view of the lover/boyfriend relationship. To help his argument Alcibiades in some ways prove his points. Pausanias contradicts Phaedrus’s view of the lover/boyfriend relationship by looking at the meaning of love, a connection between old and young, and the outcome.

Phaedras continues on and speaks of the things that Love can inspire men to. Though he does not confine these benefits to homosocial interactions, he does specifically include them. After stating that older men are more prone to die than be humiliated in the sight of their eromenos, he goes on to say that, ??as for abandoning his boyfriend or not helping him when danger threatens ? well, possession by love would infuse even utter cowards with courage. ? Moreover, only lovers are prepared to sacrifice themselves ? and this goes for women as well as men.? (Phaedras, 179a)

Plato is often criticized for preaching the gospel of me first. The claim is that his understanding of love is essentially egoistic, and this is seen as troublesome for the obvious ethical reasons. But there may be an even more troubling issue with Plato's understanding of love. In this paper I will attempt to argue that for Plato, love is in a sense impossible; that it can only ever be a desire for something out of one's grasp. The stakes are high but perhaps there is a way to understand this problem in a way that seems a little less damning. To do this I will analyze arguments from the Lysis and the Symposium, first questioning even the possibility of love and then attempt to show that love is in fact possible, all though in weaker

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

In Plato’s Symposium the main purpose of Alcibiades’ speech is to prove that Socrates is the ideal lover, thus improving himself and his reputation through his association with Socrates. Alcibiades does this by telling stories of his love and admiration for Socrates. Through his speech Alcibiades displays the characteristics of Socrates that are similar to the speeches about love and the ideal type of love. Alcibiades hopes to justify his actions of pursuing socrates by showing that socrates is the ideal lover. He also hopes to gain a high reputation by telling the story of his pursuit of socrates, and his pursuit of the knowledge that socrates possesses. The argument Alcibiades makes about Socrates being the ideal lover is effective in convincing the members of the party that socrates is the ideal lover. However, Alcibiades fails to improve his own reputation by telling his story.

As with any speaker in the symposiums, Pausanias would define romantic love as the good kind of love. People should be loving people for what they bring to the table in terms of personality instead of beauty and lust. As old and cliché the saying

love is good and only becomes ugly if a lover's motive is exploitation. Pausanias has brought out

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.

In Plato's Symposium, Aristophanes and Alcibiades share a specific view on love, while Diotima and Socrates share another. Aristophanes sees love as a pursuit of wholeness and ultimately the desire for humans to be complete. Aristophanes explains the origins of how humans came to have two arms and two legs as well as one sex organ. Humans used to be creatures who existed with eight limbs as well as two sexual organs, however they were far too ambitious and had even made an attempt on the gods. When this event occurred, Zeus and other gods met in council, and in their meeting, they came to the conclusion to cut humans in half, to ensure they could still exist yet not be overly ambitious. Humans have been on the pursuit to find their literal other half ever since separation. In other words, to find their soulmate.

Plato was a philosopher from Classical Greece and an innovator of dialogue and dialect forms which provide some of the earliest existing analysis ' of political questions from a philosophical perspective. Among some of Plato 's most prevalent works is his dialogue the Symposium, which records the conversation of a dinner party at which Socrates (amongst others) is a guest. Those who talk before Socrates share a tendency to celebrate the instinct of sex and regard love (eros) as a god whose goodness and beauty they compete. However, Socrates sets himself apart from this belief in the fundamental value of sexual love and instead recollects Diotima 's theory of love, suggesting that love is neither beautiful nor good because it is the desire to possess what is beautiful, and that one cannot desire that of which is already possessed. The ultimate/primary objective of love as being related to an absolute form of beauty that is held to be identical to what is good is debated throughout the dialogue, and Diotima expands on this description of love as being a pursuit of beauty (by which one can attain the goal of love) that culminates in an understanding of the form of beauty. The purpose of this paper is to consider the speeches presented (i.e. those of Phaedrus, Pausanias, Eryximachus, Aristophanes, and Agathon) in Plato 's Symposium as separate parts that assist in an accounting of the definition and purpose of platonic love.

In the Symposium by Plato, seven great speaker talk about love. In each speech they discuss what does love mean to them. In one of these speeches love makes the most sense and can be agreeable. In another speech makes sense also but disagreeable. These two speeches are spoken by Aristophanes; a comic poet, and Agathon.

Plato’s Symposium introduces a speech in which Diotima teaches Socrates of Love—what he is and art of him. The dialectic tells of how Love came to be, the very nature of Love, and that Love is something entirely separate from beauty, yet he participates with beauty. Her dialogue expresses the faults in Socrates’ previous stance, along with Agathon’s, “that Love is a great god and that he belongs to beautiful things” (201e).

In the Symposium on that night, Socrates’ speech is one of the most important of the night as he is clearly a central figure, admired by the other guests. Socrates begins by presenting his argument that if love is nothing, then it is of something, and if it is of something, then it is of something that is desired, and therefore of something that is not already possessed, which is then usually beautiful and good. Human beings begin by loving physical beauty in another person, then progress to love of intellect and from that level to see the connection among people and ultimately, the lover of beauty enjoys a kind of revelation or vision of universal beauty, which we find ourselves in the pursuit of during our own study of Plato’s work. The

Love can make people do crazy things. There is scientific evidence that proves love creates chemical changes in our brains. Love is a powerful force - one that can inspire greatness and one that can inspire madness. It is one of the strongest emotions we are capable of feeling. Erotic love is described as a sexual yearning, love, or intimacy, or the sum of all instincts for self-preservation. It is the spiritual force that helps us achieve transcendence within the deepest of human bonds. However, erotic love can affect us like a chemical addiction, causing obsession, intense euphoria, and reckless behaviors. The purpose of this essay is to explore the concept erotic love, according to Plato in the Republic and further prove that erotic love is a tyrant in the sense described by Plato.