Socrates and Alcibiades

1255 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: the nature of love as portrayed in plato's Alcibiades

Philosophy and the Human Condition

Socrates and Alcibiades

In Plato’s Symposium, he describes the party which Agathon had several famous people of his time over for dinner. Those in attendance include Phaedrus, Pausanias, Eryximachus, Aristophanes, and Socrates. The party begins by the members of the party eating dinner and then beginning to talk to about love. Each person gives a eulogy of love. After everyone has spoken, including Socrates, Alcibiades enters and gives a eulogy of Socrates. The two agree on the nature of love in some ways, and disagree in others. They both have very different viewpoints on the subject. Socrates takes a very philosophical and approach and Alcibiades takes a more simplistic approach.

Socrates begins by questioning Agathon about love, explaining that it is neither good, nor beautiful. He tells of his time talking to Diotima, who tells him that love is neither a God nor mortal; that it occupies the middle ground as a spirit. She then tells him the function of spirits. “They translate and carry messages from men to gods and from gods to men. They convey men’s prayers and the god’s instructions, and men’s offerings and the god’s returns on this offerings,” she says (202e). Socrates says that love was born from Plenty and Poverty on the day of Aphrodite’s birth, so it always follows beauty. Love is also poor, tough, needy, yet clever.

Next, Socrates explains that we are not looking for our other halves unless the half or even the whole is not good. Diotima says, “I mean, we’re even prepared to amputate our arms and legs if we think they’re in a bad state. It’s only when a person describes what he’s got as good and what he hasn’t as bad that he’s capable of being content with what belongs ...

... middle of paper ...

...egnant” is to love a man. Women are capable of meaningful and wise conversations. I do agree that we are not looking for our other halves; I think that you’re attracted to people your entire life, even after you’ve found someone you love. I feel that love is an emotion, or a feeling of wholeness with one person. In Alcibiades’ speech, I agree that the person you love may seem one way on the outside, but is totally different and virtuous on the inside. I also agree that we feel shame around our partners, because we act more virtuously when we are with them. I also agree that if you love someone, that love is very enduring and tough, and can withstand almost anything. Finally, I agree that when the person you love, to you at least, seems to be the best person you have ever met. I don’t agree with Socrates or Alcibiades completely, but I mostly agree with Alcibiades.

Show More
Related

  • Plato and Aristotle

    1275 Words  | 3 Pages

    Plato and Aristotle have two distinct views on wellness. However, each man’s opinion on wellness is directly tied in to his respective opinions on the idea of imitation as a form of knowledge. Their appreciation or lack thereof for tragedy is in fact directly correlated to their own perspective on wellness and emotion. Firstly, it is important to consider each man’s view of wellness—that is how does each man go about addressing emotional stability. One important consideration is the approach Plato takes in relation to Aristotle. It is this approach that we will see actually mirroring between how they treat emotional well-being and their tolerance for imitation.

    Read More

  • Importance Of Plato's Republic

    1470 Words  | 3 Pages

    Socrates gives and interesting and radical stance on relationships to his audience; stating that women and children should be held in common. He says that the

    Read More

  • Plato's "Symposium"

    1656 Words  | 4 Pages

    Everyone has heard of Plato’s Symposium at one point in their life, after all it is a literary classic. When I began reading the novel I had no idea what a symposium really was, but according to the book’s introduction a symposium literally means “drinks party” when translated into English so if that is transliterated it informs readers that it is a party in which there would be consumption of alcohol (xiii, Plato). A symposium was also only meant for men and it was typically for the upper-class in which the host would provide a meal, entertainment, and alcoholic beverages (xiii, Plato). This particular symposium is in celebration of the tragedian playwright, Agathon, who had just won first prize for his tragedy at the Lenean festival (xiii, Plato). At the party there are seven speeches made about love by six different speakers, these speakers include: Phaedrus, Pausanias, Aristophanes, Eryximachus, Agathon, and Socrates; it is believed...

    Read More

  • How Does Socrates Words Likely Affect Alcibiades?

    308 Words  | 1 Pages

    “Before him alone I feel ashamed, for I am conscious that I cannot contradict him and say it isn’t necessary to do what he bids, but when I leave him, I am worsted by the honors of the multitude. So I desert him and flee, and when I see him I am ashamed by my own arrangements. ” But then again, Alcibiades thinks he could gratify Socrates and pursue good things and some wisdom from him by using his youthful beauty. But he

    Read More

  • What Is The Persuasive Speech In Plato's Phaedrus?

    709 Words  | 2 Pages

    Phaedrus informs Socrates that he had just heard a speech by Lysias, the greatest rhetorician of the age and a sophist. Socrates, eager to hear Lysias’ speech entices Phaedrus to reenact it. Phaedrus obliges and recounts Lysias’ speech depicting the advantages and disadvantages of the love and non-lover. Lysias’ speech intends to persuade the audience to view the non-lover as the more accommodating choice. “But if you are persuaded by me, first, in my association with you I shall attend not to present pleasure, but also to the benefit that lies in store for the future; I’ll not be worsted by love, but in mastery of myself…” (Phaedrus p. 33). The lover is described, as someone who gets jealous, is obsessive or controlling, and desires physical appearance before the mind. Furthermore the lover, brings turmoil back, is overly sensitive, and overly encouraging or fearful of the beloved. Whereas, the non-lover is presented as the friend, who prefers the mind to physical appearance, is less needy, and won’t diminish your reputation. A non-lover, will not expect gifts back, exercises more self-control, more rational thought, is not jealous of friends or the time, and is less likely to be

    Read More

  • Plato's The Symposium: Drinking Party

    708 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Symposium (which means “Drinking Party”) (Puchner), is a connotation that goes back to Ancient Greece from approximately the seventh century BCE, and was a significant part of the Greek culture, known as a gathering for the upper socially classed Greek men. A symposium was held at one of the homes of a participant, in a room specifically dedicated to such assemblies called the “andrōn”. In this room seven to eleven couches were organized along the walls, allowing the men to sprawl out on while observing each other, as they drank, feasted, and sang together. A symposium was also known for the various forms of entertainment, including the hetairai. The hetairai were women perceived as high class prostitutes elevated by their skills and proficiency in high culture, dance, music, and aerobics. During these gatherings the Greek aristoi (meaning “elite”) might chose to play games, tell stories, discuss and reflect on such topics as the concerns of the day, including politics, philosophy, and poetry. In such events held after the feast, each of the collective group took a turn in succession by circling the room in a traditional counter-clockwise way. These symposiums were held of men of mutual stations and cultural, which helped bond the groups of the elite that ran the city. In this particular synopsis Plato describes how

    Read More

  • The Jealousy Of Alcibiades Essay

    1844 Words  | 4 Pages

    Alcibiades’ speech played a fundamental role in the Symposium because it was different from the other five speeches given. It serves as a spiritual copy completing Socrates’ speech because he compares Socrates as Eros since they share the same features. It seems that Alcibiades portrays Eros in a way it’s easier for readers to grasp and understand. It seems that people would reject the idea of love if it does not involve sex but rather a philosophical touch to it. The way that Alcibiades’ speech was portrayed makes it easier for readers to accept Eros and the characteristics of it because they gave a natural

    Read More

  • Comparison Between Crito And Apology by Plato

    1631 Words  | 4 Pages

    For these two articles that we read in Crito and Apology by Plato, we could know Socrates is an enduring person with imagination, because he presents us with a mass of contradictions: Most eloquent men, yet he never wrote a word; ugliest yet most profoundly attractive; ignorant yet wise; wrongfully convicted, yet unwilling to avoid his unjust execution. Behind these conundrums is a contradiction less often explored: Socrates is at once the most Athenian, most local, citizenly, and patriotic of philosophers; and yet the most self-regarding of Athenians. Exploring that contradiction, between Socrates the loyal Athenian citizen and Socrates the philosophical critic of Athenian society, will help to position Plato's Socrates in an Athenian legal and historical context; it allows us to reunite Socrates the literary character and Athens the democratic city that tried and executed him. Moreover, those help us to understand Plato¡¦s presentation of the strange legal and ethical drama.

    Read More

  • Comparing Socrates, Eryximachus, Pausanias, And

    514 Words  | 2 Pages

    Socrates tells Diotimas speech by stating the qualities of love and speaks on several teachings

    Read More

  • The Danger of Love: Antigone by Sophocles

    695 Words  | 2 Pages

    Nearly everyone experiences the feeling of love. Whether it’s for another person or for food, almost everyone feels love during their lifetime. In the play Antigone, the writer, Sophocles, illustrates a very important fact regarding love: love is our most important and most dangerous motivation for doing anything, and without moderation, love can be deadly.

    Read More

  • Forms of Love in Plato's Symposium

    2571 Words  | 6 Pages

    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 of Love; Agathon enunciates that the correct way to present an eulogy is first to praise its nature and gifts. As the last speaker, and the most important one, Socrates connects his ideas with Diotima of Mantinea’s story of Love’s origin, nature and purpose. Different from the earlier five speakers who regard Love as an object and praise different sides of it, Socrates, referring to Diotima’s idea, considers Love as a pursuit of beauty gradually from “physical beauty of people in general” (Symposium, Plato, 55) to the “true beauty” (55).

    Read More

  • Socrates' View Of Love

    1035 Words  | 3 Pages

    friends, and each puts in his thoughts of love as the evening wears on. Socrates’

    Read More

  • Meaning Behind Alcibiades Speech At The End Of Plato's Symposium

    579 Words  | 2 Pages

    Alcibiades’s speech, by itself, initially makes no sense to the modern day reader. It mainly relates his struggles with being the lover of Socrates. If you can understand the Ancient Greek traditions of loved ones and lovers, Alcibiades’s struggles with being Socrates’s “lover” is confusing. Since Alcibiades is younger than Socrates, Socrates should be the lover rather than the “loved one.” Alcibiades laments that Socrates rejects his love and advances. However, Socrates, in his own way, is loving Alcibiades.

    Read More

  • Philosophy of love

    693 Words  | 2 Pages

    Some people believe that there is no such thing as “true love” they believe that love is nothing but an illusion designed by social expectations. These people believe that love ultimately turns into pain and despair. This idea in some ways is true. Love is not eternal it will come to an end one way or another, but the aspect that separates true love from illusion, is the way love ends. “True Love” is much too powerful to be destroyed by Human imperfection; it may only be destroyed by a force equal to the power of love. Diotima believed that “Love is wanting to posses the good forever” In other words love is the desire to be immortal and the only way that we are able to obtain immortality is through reproduction, and since the act of reproduction is a form of sexual love, then sexual love is in fact a vital part of “True love”. Sexual love is not eternal. This lust for pleasure will soon fade, but the part of love that is immortal, is a plutonic love. You can relate this theory to the birth of love that Diotima talks about. She says that love was born by a mortal mother and immortal father. The mother represents the sexual love, the lust for pleasure. The father represents the plutonic love that is immortal. Plutonic love is defined as a true friendship, the purest of all relationships. A true plutonic love will never die; it transcends time, space, and even death.

    Read More

  • Love

    711 Words  | 2 Pages

    During Plato and Socrates years it was harder to make a clear definition of love due to the fact that most people didn't have a chance to find their perfect match. Due to the politics involved in arranged marriages people didn't have a good chance to meet the person of their dreams and whom they really loved. This gave some sour views of love and the concept of true love. The lower class in the early days was the luckiest class of that time period because they had a chance to seek out the person they wanted to be with because it wasn't important if a merchants' son married a farmers' daughter, but if a prince fell in love with a farmers' daughter the chance of them being able to be together was impossible.

    Read More

More about Socrates and Alcibiades

Open Document