Plato's Symposium: An Analysis

Throughout history people have been hearing and using the word love to provide themselves with their own personal satisfaction. But, do we really understand what the true meaning of love really is? True love is when an individual expresses high morals and is willing to put self-interests aside to see someone for who they are as a person and not what they can provide in gifts. I think many of us sometimes abuse love for our own advantage in life, whether that be sex, money or power. People who are considered “common lovers” have no desire to gain virtue in another human being, which is the ultimate goal of finding true. In Plato’s Symposium, Pausanias clearly expresses people bring forth poor ethics toward the democracy by valuing common

It is said that love as a physical attraction and nothing more is common and heavenly love is good for the body and soul. Heavenly love is what we all should be working towards when making that decision to find a lover. This love is not something we see or do but something we feel inside us. Usually older people have a better understanding of this love and value it more than younger people. When you are younger, you are more prone to falling into the trap of common love. This is because younger people do not have the wisdom to know what is necessarily right and wrong when loving someone, therefore falling into the trap of immoral love. Pausanias describes these younger people as unintelligent because they don’t understand the reasoning for their actions. One that loves commonly may be satisfied for a short period of time or not even at all while engaging in sex, while people that are loving for more than just sexual pleasure experience satisfaction constantly, not just when making love to one another. It may be hard to look past the physical attraction you have for another human, but it is important to form a deeper bond with them and see them for who they are, not just what they can

The idea is that you don’t truly love someone until you learn to love their minds rather than focusing on the body. Taking advantage of someone to “get at” his or her body is a shameful act only to satisfy one’s self in a sexual sense. By acting in such a way is truly diminishing all that is good when we think of love and what it stands for. But, a man that pursues high moral ethics and has good character, in return makes him constant for life due to his faithfulness to another person. Also, people that are after sexual desires don’t really care if those desires are satisfied. The satisfaction you receive from sex is un-constant and fails to give your life true meaning going forward. For one to pursue virtue in loving another, he or she should be a companion, making their relationship constant and fulfilling by making positive ethical decisions. A man that values the mind over the body is of good values and therefore can positively influence another person, making the relationship healthy and