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The Concept Of Love
Plato's theory of love essay
Plato's theory of love essay
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Why does one love? One loves for the sake of happiness. This was the common mindset in the pre-modern worldview from the time of ancient Greece. The ideas present in Plato’s The Symposium have however been replaced with a more contemporary view, particularly in Western societies. Allan Bloom details this transition in his work Love and Friendship. Bloom argues that the idea of “eros” has lost its true meaning; it has been morphed into a selfish and self-less act of mere sex: “Eros, in its Freudian version, is really all just selfishness and provides no basis for intimate human connection” (Bloom 24). Sex is no longer a form of a strong, intimate connection, but rather our contemporaries have allowed sex to become “no different from a description of eating habits” (Bloom 20). Society today sees sex everywhere, it is forced upon us by the media, but there’s no beauty in it. Love relationships once were for the purpose of exchanging knowledge, today it is a label frequently and erroneously used.
In the pre-modern view, love relationships were regarded as necessary for society to flourish. In The Symposium, love relationships had a general progression. One must love a single body. Then, realize that all bodies are beautiful. Finally, one must love another for one’s soul, and not just for one’s body; as we age, this physical beauty of the body fades. Love of the soul would last for the lifetime. Loving one’s soul leads to beautiful discourse. This beautiful discourse allows us to experience beauty itself, the ideal goal sought after by Plato. Love was not simply an emotion either, but rather a spirit within that connected beings; it was the compulsion for the good in another. Now, like sex, it is everywhere, in our romantic comedies...
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...of Nietzsche and Sarte, we then realize there is no God to follow, nor a core to turn in towards to. We must take actions to develop our selves. We have a standard view, developed by society. We are born with a clean slate, and it is our responsibility to avoid alienation. To avoid alienation, we are to be actively creative with the help of another, specifically an intimate other. The only way we can live in rejection of the standard view is through a love relationship with this intimate other. Our intimate other allows us to reach the end goal first set by the ancient Greeks—happiness.
Works Cited
Bloom, Allan. "Introduction: The Fall of Eros." Love and Friendship. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993. 13-35. Print.
Guignon, Charles. On Being Authentic. London: Routledge, 2004. Print.
Plato, and R. E. Allen. The Symposium. Vol. 2. Yale U. P., 1991. Print.
Love and affection is an indispensable part of human life. In different culture love may appear differently. In the poem “My god my lotus” lovers responded to each other differently than in the poem “Fishhawk”. Likewise, the presentation of female sexuality, gender disparity and presentation of love were shown inversely in these two poems. Some may argue that love in the past was not as same as love in present. However, we can still find some lovers who are staying with their partners just to maintain the relationship. We may also find some lovers having relationship only because of self-interest. However, a love relationship should always be out of self-interest and must be based on mutual interest. A love usually obtains its perfectness when it develops from both partners equally and with same affection.
Plato’s Symposium introduces the metaphorical “ladder of love” which allows a person to ascend from the attraction of a beautiful body to beauty itself. Climbing this “ladder of love” to admire beauty itself can be achieved through following Eros, the god of love. However, Diotima states that some people misuse Eros not to admire beauty itself, but to achieve immortality by reproducing. Therefore, the analysis of Diotima's speech suggests that her character serves to criticise the use love for personal gain.
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.
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.
Can a simple emotion such as love be regarded as one of the greatest weapons to create or attain power? It’s a renowned fact that human beings are by nature designed to need, crave, and even require love as part of their survival mechanisms. It comes to no surprise that one of the first accounts of antique poetry maintains love and the craving for it as its main theme; thereby, reinforcing the deep importance that it upholds in the lives of many individuals. Sappho’s “Deathless Aphrodite” clearly epitomizes the suffering and bitterness that arises from an unrequited love. In Sappho’s case, which portrays the case of many, she constantly finds herself in loneliness and despair for though she tries repeatedly, she is only let down recurrently as no one reciprocates the love she gives. It is only the Greek goddess Aphrodite, who holds
The Symposium by Plato has been considered as his least philosophical dialogue. The Symposium is comprised of a series of speeches. In order to draw a conclusion on Socrates view on love, we shall examine previous speeches and compare them to his speech. This will inevitably draw out similarities that will make a pattern emerge on Socrates viewpoint on love. Method and content remain the two key similarities. Considering the method, Socrates speech follows those of who preceded him by his use of mythology. This is seen in his story of the birth of Love from Want and Wit (203bff.) Phaedrus, Pausanias and Agathon also follow with their conception stories of Love. Now let us consider content similarities between these speeches. There are two concept similarities types.
Love, in classical Greek literature, is commonly considered a prominent theme. Love, in present days, always appears in the categories of books, movies, music, etc. Interpreted differently by different people, Love turns into a multi-faceted being. 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.
First, to get back on track, it is important to look at the three separate levels of love, and it would make sense to first look at eros. Eros is a romantic love, the kind of love one would have towards a beautiful object, or person. It is that sexual drive that is most apparent at the early stages of a relationship. This could be considered to be the first definition people would think of when questioned about the meaning of love. In fact in a more layman attempt at understanding eros one can think of the feeling one has during a crush, where a person’s affections are aimed at a single individual.
Love is not a choice. We do not choose who we give our hearts to. Many people can attest to this. Emily Dickinson wrote "That love is all there is, Is all we know of love." Love is a feeling that no one has the power over and love is a feeling that conquers all. Anyone who has tried to conquer or control love has failed. Love does not listen to laws, science, societal gender, religion, social class, or race. Love is its own entity that can give human beings the biggest high they have ever felt, and also make them feel the most immense pain known to mankind. If love is all of these things and more, than love certainly is not going to be stopped by gender. To love gender is just a small hill to be climbed with new diversities on the other side.
From birth, humans are given unconditional love from their mothers, who through nurturing establishes a standard of love for which their young will psychological seek as they filter their interactions into adulthood. They will gravitate towards this feeling of familiarity and base their life decisions upon it. Love is almost supernatural in the sense of how extreme it can manipulate one’s existence. In its prime state, love is a sensation of the highest pleasure, however when deprived of this pleasure one can be left with an extreme void. Nonetheless, despite which duality is received, personal growth is insured from either outcome. As the human condition of love has transcended every art form globally, proving how inspirational and destructive
In classical Greek literature the subject of love is commonly a prominent theme. However, throughout these varied texts the subject of Love becomes a multi-faceted being. From this common occurrence in literature we can assume that this subject had a large impact on day-to-day life. One text that explores the many faces of love in everyday life is Plato’s Symposium. In this text we hear a number of views on the subject of love and what the true nature of love is. This essay will focus on a speech by Pausanius. Pausanius’s speech concentrates on the goddess Aphrodite. In particular he looks at her two forms, as a promoter of “Celestial Love” as well as “Common Love.” This idea of “Common Love” can be seen in a real life context in the tragedy “Hippolytus” by Euripides. This brings the philosophical views made by Pausanius into a real-life context.
Love has been expressed since the beginning of time; since Adam and Eve. Each culture expresses its love in its own special way. Though out history, though, it’s aspect has always been the same. Love has been a major characteristic of literature also. One of the most famous works in literary history is, Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. This story deals with the love of a man and a woman who’s families have been sworn enemies. There love surpassed the hatred in which the families endured for generations. In the end they both ended up killing their selves, for one could not live without the other. This story is a perfect example of true love.
As society evolves and changes, we as individuals tend to change and evolve alongside it. In the eleventh century, this form of romantic love was next to non-existent. This ideal, or rather concept of love served two main purposes; one being spiritual entertainment and the second being erotic desire. It is clear from the works of literature that its purpose appeared to be rather contradictory. On one side, it helped in elevating morality, by showing passion, desire and discipline.
In my opinion Plato’s ideas and philosophies are completely unrealistic and contradicting. His view on love really intrigued me. I don’t like the idea of “platonic love.” I think that it is ridiculous that he would think of such an idea to be so great. I can not comprehend having a marriage without romance or sexual desire. Plato to my understanding really had no feelings or value for emotions. There are many other works and ideas of Plato’s' that I did not touch on in this paper. I could probably proceed for pages and 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.