Pursuit Of Love In Aristophanes's Theory Of Romantic Love

Beginning his own attack on the misconduct of love Socrates concentrates on the objective that the “lover is an exploiter”. (Weaver p. 10) Socrates describes love as a kind of yearning passion that conquers rational thought and leads toward the pleasure of physical appearance. The lover desires for the obtained item of affection to delight him essentially as much as conceivable but only individuals who are consumed with this love, only the item possessed will please them. Therefore, the lover views everything that is superior, equal to, or is disputing with resentment. Thus, the lover attempts to make the beloved subsidiary to oneself in each reference. Throughout the time the lover is maintaining the beloved from acquiring any more knowledge and physical strength, this implements an unhealthy effect that the beloved is helpless in any critical situation. The lover exercises continual compulsion over the beloved depriving of all praiseworthy qualities, and this is the price the beloved pays for accepting a lover who is beyond logical reasoning. Socrates reveals the beloved as the inferior in every account, keeps the beloved weak and dependent, this lover is not motivated by benevolence or humility but selfish appetite. The lover is an exploiter and has the kind of desire that dismisses rational opinion and moves toward enjoyment of physical beauty. They only want

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

It can be remembered that his speech described love in several ways. In his speech, he identified love as beautiful, wise, and young, sensitive, as well as the object of desire. Socrates then contradicts Agathon’s description, making suggestions that Agathon and the love he describes is not really love itself but the object of love’s desire. He compares himself to love that is fluid that is evidenced by his grace, a trait that is commonly accepted to belong to Love alone. Agathon also claims that love is fair and should be treated fairly as well.

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

According to Aristophanes, love (eros) – the highest form of love that one human being can feel towards another – is the desire of dissected halves, one to another, for restoring the wholeness of the nature’s origin. I will explain what does Aristophanes mean by his metaphor and why do people fall in love.

thesis what Aristophanes defines as love. He believes that love is innate: " love is born into

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

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 future we may not experience what we did in the past. Having something,

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.

Plato’s Symposium describes the nature of love to be the driving force towards immortality. Aristophanes perpetuates this idea through his allegorical description of human’s original nature, and the component of the driving force of love within that nature. The underlying goal of this force of love is immortality, though he does not directly articulate it in his speech. It is with the emergence of Socrates’ ideas that we are equipped with sufficient evidence reinforcing Aristophanes’ story to be one in which immortality is the end goal, and that we are made to realize Socrates’ speech is really a further elaboration on what Aristophanes put forward, providing the tools to truly comprehend his true point.

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.

Plato has addressed Love from different viewpoint in the Symposium. Alcibiades speech in the Symposium gives a perception about “Platonic love” which according to Plato is the kind of love that involves affectionate relationship between men without sexual intimacy. In the Symposium, Alcibiades enters into the symposium completely drunk and tries to flirt with Socrates and Agathon and gives his speech. It seems like Alcibiades praises Socrates rather than love in his speech. He compares Socrates’s qualities to that of the Gods Silenus and Marsyas and tries to portray Socrates greatness.

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.

The Symposium, by Plato, takes place at a dinner party honoring Agathon for his play’s recent success. At this dinner party, numerous ideas are discussed and debated. One of the most interesting topics that arises is the distinct correlation between Love and Socrates himself. Referencing the correlation between Socrates and Love, by using the speeches of Diotima and Alcibiades, the argument can be made that Socrates illustrates the essence of the perfect philosopher.