Diotima's Argument Concerning The Nature Of Desire

1195 Words3 Pages

Diotima’s discussion concerning the nature of desire is that the source of Eros is desire to possess good for eternity and we must also desire immortality.
Diotima claims that love is the desire to possess good for eternity and we must also desire immortality. People only love what is good, as we will not pursue another individual unless that individual is good. Happiness is when the desire to have good and beautiful things. Thus, saying the lover of beautiful things desires “that they become his own” (Symposium, 50). However, we desire what we do not possess. The good is happiness, which is believe to be the end itself that is when the lover of good things has what he desire, only then he will have happiness. Thus, seeking for this individuals may get confused with beauty and instead of seeking an experience they search for the sensory version of beauty and not the intellectual beauty. …show more content…

Nevertheless, some are still to be in love and others are not. Diotima states that these are both different types of love. Everyone pursues love differently, one has to be devoted completely to a certain kind of love to belong to the whole of love. Such as, if someone was devoted to solely sports or music they would be called an athlete or musician, they also have other names in other portion of the field.
This same notion can go for love. As, we all desire beautiful things and happiness which is a small part of love. Those who “making money, philosophy – we don’t say these people are in love, and we don’t call them lovers” (Symposium, 51). We look for beautiful things, which may be in another person and if they weren’t beautiful we wouldn’t search for them, because they are not what we desire forever which is beauty. In the end we love what is beautiful and that we can possess

Show More
Related

  • T. C. Boyle's Modern Love

    1184 Words  | 3 Pages

    Love is just a man-made construct created to justify our decadence. Human are hedonistic animals: we always seek pleasure. Truthfully, we are inherently selfish, caring for only our own well-being, and even if we say we love without costs, we love because it gives us the utmost pleasure: the pursuit of happiness.

    Read More

  • Frankenstein

    939 Words  | 2 Pages

    obtain love from something , it is easy and very possible to have love for

    Read More

  • Two Types of Love in Plato's Symposium

    1223 Words  | 3 Pages

    I have always thought that there was only one type of love, which was that feeling of overwhelming liking to someone else. I am aware that Lust does exist and that it is separate from Love, being that the desire for someone's body rather their mind. In Plato's Symposium, Plato speaks of many different types of love, loves that can be taken as lust as well. He writes about seven different points of view on love coming from the speakers that attend the symposium in honor of Agathon. Although all these men bring up excellent points on their definitions on love, it is a woman that makes the best definition be known. I will concentrate on the difference between the theory of Common and Heavenly love brought up by Pausanias and the important role that Diotima plays in the symposium.

    Read More

  • Aristophanes Speech

    1574 Words  | 4 Pages

    Ultimately, the god aids humans in our quest towards completion; Eros attempts to transform the despondency sewn into people by Zeus into happiness and contentment. Individuals have born into them, an affliction stemming from an overwhelming feeling of longing, and man must try to overcome this affliction by any means necessary. However, it is Eros that is able to truly bring two slices back to a unified whole. By following Eros, not only are we able to be healed from our yearning, but we are also capable of being pious beings while being truly

    Read More

  • Interpretation of Love in Plato’s Symposium

    1776 Words  | 4 Pages

    The Symposium, The Aeneid, and Confessions help demonstrate how the nature of love can be found in several places, whether it is in the mind, the body or the soul. These texts also provide with eye-opening views of love as they adjust our understanding of what love really is. By giving us reformed spectrum of love, one is able to engage in introspective thinking and determine if the things we love are truly worthy of our sentiment.

    Read More

  • The Main Themes Of Buddhism In The Dhammapada

    951 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Dhammapada speaks a universal truth, that “desire is unquenchable,” and explains that “he who wishes to awake, consumes his desires joyfully” (Chapter 14). These statements prove similar to the four noble truths, that to live is to suffer, and desire causes suffering; therefore, one cannot avoid temptation because it is ubiquitous. When explaining the outcomes of “craving pleasure or nursing pain,” the Buddha articulates that “there is only sorrow” (Chapter 16). Desire clearly only causes difficulty when attempting to achieve Nirvana, and the Dhammapada seeks to convey the importance of clearing the mind and purifying one’s thoughts. Continuing to contrast lust and happiness, the Buddha explains that “there is pleasure and there is bliss, forgo the first to possess the second” (Chapter 21). One cannot have genuine jubilation while yearnings and allurements cloud the mind. Expressed throughout Buddhist teachings and a main religious text, the action of overpowering desire and lewd thoughts proves a crucial step in eventually reaching

    Read More

  • Forms of Love in Plato's Symposium

    2571 Words  | 6 Pages

    Diotima stated that humans were in love with immortality, thus they longed to procreate and let their offspring resemble the old ones in order to achieve the continuity of existence that means immortality. For procreating, in Diotima’s case, there are two ways: one is physically giving birth to ordinary children, the other is mentally giving birth to offspring. These two types of procreation represent two stages of Love. The former is for Love that stems from the attraction to the beauty of human bodies, while the latter is for Love that starts from the appreciation of the mental beauty. Hence, in conclusion, according to Diotima, Love is the journey of the true beauty.

    Read More

  • Love And Happiness And Sigmund Freud's Theory Of Happiness

    1972 Words  | 4 Pages

    Freud wrote that loving and being loved can be utilized to achieve a sense of true happiness and fulfilment in this life. He describes love as “a method that takes a firm hold of its objects and obtains happiness from an emotional relation to them” (p. 7). Freud also theorizes that love does not strive to avoid pain, but instead passionately attempts to reach a positive fulfillment of happiness. Freud specifically mentions sexual love, which “gives us our most intense experience of an overwhelming pleasurable sensation and so furnishes a prototype for our strivings after happiness” (p. 8). By placing love at the center of everything, happiness can easily be found, but at the same time love comes with a certain vulnerability within an individual and can make a person susceptible to a very painful amount of suffering

    Read More

  • Plato's Ladder Of Love Essay

    721 Words  | 2 Pages

    Their work has been of great value as philosophers and researchers today study the idea of love. Without their knowledge and viewpoints on the matter, theorists would not have an initial point to base their contemporary research off of. The beliefs of what love is, and the different levels it holds were concepts philosophers studied to help develop and strengthen their metaphysical opinions on love. In the end, Diotima continues to share her perceptions on the principles of love. She declares that once you have been in love, you will never be seduced again. If this is true, how can one explain the desire for an affair or

    Read More

  • Those Who By Insight Know What Love Is

    1488 Words  | 3 Pages

    As any romantic will assert, love is by far the most powerful force known to human hearts and minds. This sentiment is espoused throughout history, almost to the point of cliché. Everyone has heard the optimistic statement, “love conquers all,” and The Beatles are certain, however idyllic it may be, that “all you need is love.” Humanity is convinced that love is unique within human emotion, unequalled in its power to both lift the spirit up in throws of ecstasy, and cast it down in utter despair.

    Read More

  • Love in If Thou Must Love Me, Let it be for Naught, To His Lady, and The Taxi

    783 Words  | 2 Pages

    The only love is true love. This means that when one loves another, the love that they are feeling should encompass all attributes of the person they are loving. If one were to say that they loved another for their beautiful eyes, this would not be true love. In order for it to be love, one would not just see the beautiful eyes, they would see everything about that person as beautiful. Elizabeth Barrett Browning agrees when she says to not love for a smile or a look, instead one should love for loves sake. ?Thou mayst love on, through love?s eternity? (206 14). True love is also a love that is eternal; true love is never ending.

    Read More

  • Eros And Poverty

    1490 Words  | 3 Pages

    Unlike the other speakers, he clearly presents Eros as the lover rather than the beloved. According to Diotima, love is fueled by the passion to acquire what one lacks. Once again, the circular quality of Eros is shown. Love is driven by desire, but what one truly desires is to be complete, which is impossible for man. Being mortal, humans can never obtain the perfection of the gods.

    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

  • How to Maintain a Successful Marriage

    1129 Words  | 3 Pages

    In society today all people try to find love, someone to be their soul mate, someone

    Read More

  • Dead Stars, Dead Love

    831 Words  | 2 Pages

    Life is lost without love, but what is love without desire? Could it be that love is an arguable thought, something that is not as strong as what we perceive it to be? Could love be merely an instrument used by society to justify their foolishness? Is it true that this idea we call love, is nothing but a fabrication of the mind fueled by the intense desire to posses?

    Read More

More about Diotima's Argument Concerning The Nature Of Desire

Open Document