Platos Symposium Essay -- Socrates Love Symposium Essays Plato

Platos Symposium What is the meaning of deal? What does hunch forward feel like? How does deal come about? No one can truly justify it, yet somehow its understood. In Platos Symposium, a dinner party was held with the discussion of love as the main topic. Everyone was required to make a oral communication, an ode to bask, the spirit. The philosopher, Socrates gave his speech last, claiming that his speech was merely a repetition of what a wise fair sex named Diotima once told him. The speech was a powerful one, but before the wickedness was over, a sot Alcibiades entered. He was asked to make a eulogy for go to sleep as well, but instead, talked about the nature of Socrates. The nature of Love and the nature of Socrates turned out to be extremely similar. In the Symposium, Socrates can be seen as the bod of Love itself. The notion of love that was understood at the end of the Symposium came about gradually. It transformed from speaker to speaker over the variant of the p arty, and could be compared to the whole process of understanding love that Socrates tried to pardon in his own speech. Its complexity was attained by taking dainty steps in a larger direction. Diotima explained to Socrates, that to attain the deepest love, he had to honor a certain order. Much like stepping up on the rungs in a ladder(211c), loves nature started small, with Phaedrus and Pausinas merely stating that there was good love and bad love. This was the first step, starting with beautiful things(211c) and making those things rea news for... rising slope(211c) up the proverbial ladder. Next Eryximachus speech compared loves importance to that of medicines. He utilise the things of this world as rungs in a ladder(211c). Aristophanes then gives love a comedic approach, breaking up the adulation. Agathon was next, and his speech showed how love affected peoples minds. It created massive poets, and spawned the practices of hedonism, luxury, and sensualism(197d). Agathon wa s last before Socrates, and the closest to Socrates view. He was at the closing steps of the deepest love, seeing the beauty of peoples activities(211c) and of intellectual endeavors(211c).Love, the spirit, was said to be the son of Plenty and Poverty(203c). One parent a polar face-to-face of the other, coming together to form the middle path named Love. The spirit Love was full of self-conflic... ...lings were not a eulogy for Love, they were personal opinions of his experiences with Socrates, and bluntly state it. Although it must be taken into consideration that he was characterized as drunk while giving his speech, he reminded the party that the truth comes from wine(217e). Essentially, still the reader that he is not in a condition to be making up lies. His commentary of Socrates nature was similar to that of Socrates own description of loves nature. However, Alcibiades was not at the party when Socrates made his speech, so there was no way could have used it to fashion a similar narrative of his own.Socrates was regarded as the wisest man at the party. He could have given a second-rate report(215d) on love, as Alcibiades would have said, and woman, man, or pincer(215d) would have been overwhelmed and spellbound(215d). It was the effect Socrates had on people. Perhaps he was the embodiment of love? Even if his speech was fictional, he held a captivated sense of hearing of men who would have reveled in the chance to lay(219b) with the Socrates. Works CitedPlato, and robin Waterfield, trans. Symposium. New York Oxford University Press, 1994.