Can one really know when one is in love? Buzzers and fireworks and confetti canons do not typically follow the harmonic sound of horns and violins that signal the occurrence of attraction. Can one really describe love? Compound the sheer difficulty of describing an emotion with the limitation of a single four letter word in the English language to explain all of the various forms. In Plato’s Symposium, Socrates and an assemblage of Greek men gathered together to celebrate the poet Agathon’s victory in his first dramatic competition, decide to forgo drinking games for a symposium—a discussion on love. Unsurprisingly, it is Socrates who offers the best description of love, but not until every other attendant has had an opportunity to voice a view.
Socrates’ speech follows that of Agathon, whose eulogy was met with thunderous applause. Before beginning his own, Socrates compliments his comrade’s oration, saying, “Am I and anyone else whatsoever not to be at a loss after quite so fair and varied a speech has been made? Though the rest was not quite so marvelous, that bit at the end—who would not be thunderstruck on hearing the beauty of its words and phrases?’” (Plato 27). This particular line foreshadows Socrates’ method of discussion: he will ask questions, as was the Socratic Method, in search of the best possible answer, or wisdom, in this case, the best description of love. By following this procedure, Socrates is able to criticize the former arguments while using their high points juxtaposed with his knowledge and views to form a more universal and correct description of love.
On Agathon’s views of love and its ties to beauty and necessity, Socrates manages to expose the faults of his predecessor by questioning Agathon to the ...
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...rks him as the clown and this makes his ideas difficult to consider seriously. Agathon’s fine and fancy words are typical of a playwright and are narrow-minded as both he and Phaedrus are young and argue that love is for the young exclusively, a notion Socrates thoroughly disproved.
Can one really know when one is in love? Can one really describe love, define it even? Plato’s Symposium proves the task is difficult, perhaps even beyond mortal means, though the challenge is well met by Socrates. Nonetheless, human beings endeavor to quantify and qualify love, dividing its many forms into sections and attempt to discover what it all means for the mind, body, and soul. At the end of the journey, all must see that love cannot be universally defined, given a picture and caption to serve as a model for all humanity—it must be felt, experienced, and built over a lifetime.
Plato's Phaedrus is a conversation between Socrates and Phaedrus. In this conversation the young Phaedrus is overjoyed to tell Socrates of the speech that he had just heard Lysias, "The best writer living" (Plato Phaedrus 22), tell. In this speech Lysias uses his rhetorical skills to argue that physical love without emotional attachment is preferable to physical love with emotional attachment, "That is the clever thing about it; he makes out that an admirer who is not in love is to be preferred to one who is" (Plato Phaedrus 22). Socrates listens to this speech, as relayed by Phaedrus and quickly becomes aware that this speech was a ploy by Lysias to get Phaedrus into bed with him. Socrates then fashions a speech, on the spot, that argues the same points that Lysias did. Socrates? speech is going well but is interrupted by "divine sign." Socrates then has to fashion a new speech that renounces the blasphemous nature of the first. Socrates? second speech contains the famous image of love as a charioteer with two horses. He also addresses the nature of the soul and the effects that love has on it (which will be ...
Plato's The Apology is an account of the speech. Socrates makes at the trial in which he is charged with not recognizing the gods recognized by the state, inventing new gods, and corrupting the youth of Athens. For the most part, Socrates speaks in a very plain, conversational manner. He explains that he has no experience with the law courts and that he will instead speak in the manner to which he is accustomed with honesty and directness. Socrates then proceeds to interrogate Meletus, the man primarily responsible for bringing Socrates before the jury. He strongly attacks Meletus for wasting the court¡¦s time on such absurd charges. He then argues that if he corrupted the young he did so unknowingly since Socrates believes that one never deliberately acts wrongly. If Socrates neither did not corrupt the young nor did so unknowingly, then in both cases he should not be brought to trial. The other charge is the charge of impiety. This is when Socrates finds an inconsistency in Meletus¡¦ belief that Socrates is impious. If he didn¡¦t believe in any gods then it would be inconsistent to say that he believed in spiritual things, as gods are a form of a spiritual thing. He continues to argue against the charges, often asking and answering his own questions as if he were speaking in a conversation with one of his friends. He says that once a man has found his passion in life it would be wrong of him to take into account the risk of life or death that such a passion might involve.
Socrates was a pompous man who believed that he was wiser than most, if not all, Athenian men of his time. He is also credited as one of the fathers of western philosophy, his own philosophy revolving around the welfare of one’s soul and reflecting on what the good life was. He was told by an oracle that he was the wisest of men and spent a great deal of time trying to prove it false, he decided that he was considered wise for accepting that he knew nothing, and never claimed to know anything that he questioned. In Plato’s text “Apology” Socrates is depicted as a man who was arrogant, hypercritical of others, and fixed on his ways no matter the consequences. He had the qualities of a man who saw no error in what he was doing because he thought he was above average men, and thought he was a benefit to society against what others claimed. In contrast Socrates’ portrayal in Aristophanes’ play “Clouds” is more positive, his character was written wanting men to be educated, hopeful that anyone could learn if they wished to, and helpful in teaching. He has the makings of a very good teacher to the right students, men whose minds were still able to be taught, admitted their lack of knowledge, and had a desire to learn; the sophists benefitted from undermining the superior argument with an inferior one.
He first speaks to Agathon in order to be on the same wavelength with him. Socrates asks Agathon a series of questions - which leads to Agathon being thoroughly confused and completely re-thinking his entire speech he just made. Agathon is no longer sure if Love is beautiful and good, which was his primary definition of it before.
Pausanias brings up an excellent way to think about Love. He explains that love can be broken down into two types, that of Common and Heavenly love. The common love is that when a man and a woman join merely to satisfy their sexual desires. On the other hand the heavenly love is the type that occurs when two people are attracted to each other with a strong force that goes past the physical appearance but comes from deep within as if from the soul. Although Plato presents examples of the two loves with having the common love as if only happening between a man and a woman and the heavenly love happening between a man and a man, there is not enough proof in the text to say that this if what the whole of Athens really believed.
In the Symposium, a most interesting view on love and soul mates are provided by one of the characters, Aristophanes. In the speech of Aristophanes, he says that there is basically a type of love that connects people. Aristophanes begins his description of love by telling the tale of how love began. He presents the tale of three sexes: male, female, and a combination of both. These three distinct sexes represented one’s soul. These souls split in half, creating a mirror image of each one of them. Aristophanes describes love as the search for the other half of your soul in this quote: “When a man’s natural form was split in two, each half went round looking for its other half. They put their arms around one another, and embraced each other, in their desire to grow together again. Aristophanes theme is the power of Eros and how not to abuse it.
This passage marks the first of several types of love, and gives us an intuitive
Whether Socrates is portrayed correctly or not, he certainly was a great man. His contribution to western thought cannot be denied. For even if his teachings were different from what they are known to be at present, his influence on Plato is immense. And so, it is no small matter to describe the tragic passing of such a man as Socrates was and remains for philosophy today. Yet in all the indignation which is expected to arise at the death of Socrates, the panache with which he departs is captured excellently in Plato's “Apology.” Specifically, at the end of the "Apology," Socrates makes a very important statement that has had great impact on philosophy ever since its original proclamation. The Stoics in particular have taken this to be the cornerstone of their ideology. The statement made is that "you must regard one thing at least as certain—that no harm can come to a good man either in his life or after his death,” (Plato 100). The following examination focuses therefore on a brief explanation of the circumstances which lead to this statement being made by Socrates, as well as a closer look at why he thinks this to be the case. It is assumed that this statement is true, and validation for that assumption is to be sought as well.
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.
The first five speeches bond with each other. Each of them mentions the opinions of the former one in order to either support or against them. However, just like the elements of a beautiful picture, they fail to show us the integration of love. Socrates’ speech does that. It contains the sides mentioned before, and uniquely views Love from a dynamic aspect.
Let’s first focus on the Phaedrus, where Plato gives a detailed account of the psychology and the art of love. Socrates first introduces a thought-provoking analogy, comparing the soul to “the natural union of a team of winged horses and their charioteer” (246a6). One of the horses represents modesty and self-control, while the other one is full of excessive appetite. The charioteer (which could be interpreted as human’s rational element as mentioned in the Republic) tries to suppress the bad horse so that he can leads the chariot “toward what is best and in control” (237e3). However, if he is unable to do so and let the bad horse take control, “appetite drags us irrationally towards pleasure and rules in us, its rule is call excess (hubris)” (238a1). If love is controlled purely by the drive toward pleasure, this kind of erotic love is bad, as Lysias rightly belittles in the Symposium. In Socrates' view, however, there is also another kind of love, namely:
“Love is difficult to define, and there maybe different definitions. But one definition of love, is an utter, absolute, and unqualified wish for the other’s happiness” (). One of the most important Greek philosophers in Western history, Socrates contributed to many theories, and impacted the field of ethics throughout his life. He was well known in Athens for his knowledge and teachings to the youth. He was the creator of Socratic irony and the Socratic method, both used to convey his lessons to the Athenians. Socrates had many disciples throughout his life including Plato, one of the more popular students. Plato is the author of many philosophical writings, many of which are about Socrates. He questioned the idea of virtue and studied the
Aristophane’s Lysistrata is a flawed classic filled with the power struggle between man vs. woman. It is entirely focused and written from the male perspective, in which male-privilege dominated and disregarded the women’s outlook entirely. This “classic” is full of misogynistic perspectives, and should be disregarded as a great piece in Athenian literature.
Poets and philosophers for centuries have been trying to answer the question, what is love? Love has an infinite number of definitions, which vary from one person to another. Love cannot be measured by any physical means. One may never know what true love is until love it- self has been experienced. What is love? A four letter word that causes a person to behave in a way that is out of character. What is love? A first kiss, childhood crushes on a teacher or friend’s mom. What is love? A choice that people make by putting their partner’s wishes, desires and needs above everything else. What is love? The act of forgiveness, the infatuation with someone, the communication between two people. What is love? A friendship that turned into a lifelong commitment, that special someone who has vowed to spend the rest of their lives to honor and protect, to love each other “till death do you part.” When in love nothing else in the world matters. According to the online Encarta Dictionary love is the passionate feeling of romantic and sexual desire and longing for somebody. Poets and philosophers may never know what love really is, and we may never truly understand the question what is love.
philosopher that he was, he had quite a different take on the issue. Socrates strove