Symposium Rhetorical Analysis

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).

Plato’s work can be summarized by that the goal is essentially intellectual satisfaction, while Sappho’s objectives are directly linked with physical beauty and desire for physical attraction. Plato’s work provides a better understanding of love because the homoerotic relationship between an older man and younger man creates positivity because it expands the virtue in the older man and the wisdom in the younger man. Secondly, Pausanias shows the moral aspects are important within homoerotic love because they are a guide to the right and wrong ways to satisfy desire. Lastly, when you find you’re other half, in turn you are finding yourself which is an amazing achievement. Therefore, Plato’s Symposium best explains the nature of

In Symposium, a selection from The Dialogues of Plato, Plato uses historical allusions to demonstrate Alcibiades’ frustration with both social expectations for the phallus and his inability to meet these expectations. Alcibiades’ inability to have a productive sexual relationship effectively castrates him and demonstrates the impotence caused by an overemphasis on eroticism. The tragedy of Alcibiades is that he realizes he is unable to gain virtue through sexual relationships and will therefore be forced to remain mortal, yet he is unable to alter his condition.

The Symposium revolves around a Greek party made up of various men throwing around their views on love, building up to height of the evening by a speech from Socrates. Socrates knows the true way to obtain love, and tells of a tale between him and his mentor, Diotima. Through Diotima, Socrates is able to

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.

Therefore, for Pausanias, desire of such worldly and mortal objects is a manifestation of an inferior type of love. Of the man who succumbs to this love, Pausanias says, “He is not constant, because he loves something that is not constant: as soon as the bloom of the body fades, which is what attracted him, ‘he flies away and is gone’, bringing disgrace on all he said and promised,” (Plato 16). The fickle nature of worldly desire is illuminated by the flower metaphor Pausanias uses; the beauty of a flower, the bloom, is akin to the superficiality of earthly desire, and neither is the foundation of lasting love. Physical desire and the resulting attachment to the material world cause “disgrace” for the soul who delights in such cravings.

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

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.

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

In Plato’s Symposium, Agathon, Aristophanes and Diotima discuss the goodness and purpose of love. The men are gathered at a drinking party hosted by Agathon and begin their accounts on love. Aristophanes praises love and discusses the origin of desire while Agathon discusses the nature of love and that to which it is attracted. However, Socrates conception of love, as narrated by Diotima, questions the origins of love and what Love is himself. During her speech Diotima refines the various theories of love as discussed at the party and concludes that we grow in our conception of love to closer characterise the beauty and goodness of it.

The Symposium was written by Plato to illustrate a discussion between a group of friends. Additionally, the story presents numerous arguments that focus on the god Love and its merits. To pass time while they drink, Eryximachus suggests that each of the guests orate a eulogy of love. The guests proceed to participate in oration; however, their analysis of love may not be as objective as it seems. Rather than focus on an impartial view of the god, many of them have their own personal beliefs that they promote in each of their speeches. Several speeches heavily deviate from a speech about love, and turn it into a speech that uses love to support and justify their beliefs. Characters in the Symposium twist the meaning of love to fit their own principles, rather than provide an objective assessment.

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.

One of the speakers was Pausanias. He begins by saying that there are two Aphrodite- the

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.