In “Sorcerer Love: A Reading of Plato’s Symposium, Diotima’s Speech,” Luce Irigaray argues that Socrates argues for two incompatible propositions, both he learned from Diotima. The first that love is a demonic intermediary and the second is that love is a means to immortality. Luce Irigaray believes that the first position is Diotima’s and that Socrates misunderstood Diotima.
Irigaray contrasts Diotima’s dialectic to Hegel’s dialectic. Hegel’s dialectic is one in which the first term in the argument transforms into something like the antithesis, developing a synthesis. Her dialectic establishes the intermediary. Neither term is destroyed but there is a third one which is neither one nor the other. Since the existence of a third element is already there, “that permits progression from poverty to wealth, from ignorance to wisdom, from mortality to immortality” (32). There is continual progress with this kind of dialectic but one never reaches “absolute truth.” Thus, her dialectic resembles the hermeneutical circle in that manner. Irigaray proposes that love is a reflection of Diotima’s dialectic.
What makes this dialectic different from others is that there is not a call to abandon love or in Hegelian terms, the thesis. For without love, of wisdom, one can never become wise. Especially in the case of the philosopher Socrates who desires to impregnate ideas of philosophical love to his students. Without it it is impossible to be learned because nothing is driving her, pushing her, being her guide.
What Diotima proposes about love is quite shocking for it is neither “beautiful nor good.” Since Western perspective is dichotomous, Socrates assumes that love then must be bad or ugly. It is not either or. Love does not fall under th...
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...it is no longer really a demon, but an intention, a reduction to intention, to the teleology of the human will” (41). The teleology of the human will immortality is immortality. This can be achieved through bearing children. This can also be achieved spiritually by impregnating the student with thoughts and ideas. Diotima does this through Socrates. She impregnates his mind with thoughts and ideas about love and philosophy. In turn, Socrates does this at the symposium by impregnating, spiritually, many of the men there. She has achieved immortality through Socrates speech towards these. Indeed, she has achieved it when Plato wrote the Symposium for now it is know what the female philosopher has taught Socrates. This spiritual procreation is superior to carnal procreation because it produces true immortality like Diotima has achieved through this Platonic dialogue.
The first chapter begins with an exploration of love and marriage in many ancient and current cultures. Surprisingly many cultures either avoid the discussion of love in marriage or spit on the idea completely. China and other societies believed that love was simply a product of marriage and shouldn’t get too out of hand, while a few Greek and Roman philosophers shunned excessive
In one of Shakespeare’s most masterful pieces, he depicts a tragic love story in which love conquers all…but at what cost? The truth is in this play, love is the victor, but with horrible consequences. Love lives on, love survives, but only at the loss of life. Not only in this play, but in many other Shakespearean works, the constant theme stands that any kind of marriage or deep emotional bond which is solely based on love ends tragically. Othello’s passionate love for Desdemona is the same passion that causes him to end her life. Antony, under the suspicion that Cleopatra has died, tries to commit suicide to only find out soon after that she is alive and in hiding, but all in vain for the fatal wound has already pricked it’s victim. Shakespeare constantly relates love with tragedy, stating that love is in fact fleeting and impermanent. The only way for love to live forever is if it dies young.
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.
In Dryden's Lucretius, the speaker argues that (1) Love is a sickness, (2) Love's sickness enslaves, and (3) all attempts to remedy Love's sickness are vain and will only frustrate the lover. Just as Milton's Adam and Eve become enslaved to sin by disobeying God, so mankind becomes enslaved to Love when pierced with Cupid's "winged arrow". In Milton, there is redemption and freedom through Christ, but in Dryden, no salvation from love is possible. This poem leaves mankind in a hopeless, frustrated state, unable to break free from love's yoke. This essay will center on the last heroic couplet: "All wayes they try, successeless all they prove,/To cure the secret sore of lingering love".
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
As the last speaker, and the most important one, Socrates connects his ideas with Diotima of Mantinea’s story of Love’s origin, nature and purpose. Different from the earlier five speakers who regard Love as an object and praise different sides of it, Socrates, referring to Diotima’s idea, considers Love as a pursuit of beauty gradually ranging from “physical beauty of people in general” (Symposium, Plato, 55) to the “true beauty” (55). The first five speeches bond with each other. Each of them mentions the opinions of the former 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.
Love and hate are powerful and contradicting emotions. Love and hate are also the subjects under examination for several centuries yet even to the present day; it remains to be a mystery. For the past centuries, writers and poets have written about love showing that the stories of love can never fade way. For this essay, I will discuss three English literature sources that talk about the theme of love and hate. These are the poem Olds "Sex without Love”, the poem Kennel "After Making Love We Hear Footsteps and the story by Hemingway "Hills like White Elephants. I will use the poems to compare the traditional stance of sex that are within the parameters of marriage and love versus the belief that love is in itself an act of pleasure
Love is a force that can overtake large adversities and can stumble over small challenges. Love is an intense feeling of deep affection. Love is eternal, but can be deflected. Different forms of love are expressed by Othello, Desdemona, and Iago in Shakespeare’s play Othello. As a result of romantic love, Desdemona splits from her family, and Othello slays his wife. Next, familial love, not as dominant as romantic love, is evidenced in Desdemona's choice to marry Othello against her family's requests. Lastly, Self-love is the basis for characters such as Iago and Othello to abandon moral reason. Love comes in different forms.
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.
Love and beauty is another theme that recurs in Greek discussion, especially in Plato’s dialogues. In the Phaedrus and especially the Symposium, Plato discusses the nature of erotic love and give the argument for the ultimately transcendental object of love: Beauty. In both dialogues, Plato presents Socrates as a quintessential philosopher who is a lover of wisdom, and through his great speeches we are able to grasp Platonism and Plato’s view on the interesting theme.
In Virgil’s The Aeneid, love is not an idealized or romanticized concept resulting from human autonomy; rather it is a compulsion or lack of self-control in the most literal sense. The concept of love in The Aeneid resembles the notion of divine interference, as it is not only something that is determined by fate, but it is also in contradiction with the course of fate. Love, a diversion to its ‘victims’ from their responsibilities, nearly prevented Aeneas from departing Carthage for Italy, and distracted Dido from the development and construction of Carthage. According to Virgil, Aeneas loved Dido, but his conviction in being subservient to the resolve of the gods led him to renounce Dido, to whom no nuptial bond existed, for what he assumed as his onus. Aeneas truly believed that he was departing for Italy “against [his own
The meaning of love is as intricate and unique as the purpose that it serves. It seems that the nature of love is found in the mind, the body and the soul. In Plato’s Symposium each member of the drinking party gives their own interpretation of love. As each speaker engages in their discourse, the concept of love is evaluated from different angles. According to Phaedrus, homoerotic love is the highest form of love and that sacrificing oneself for love will result in a multitude of rewards from the gods, while Pausanias believes that there are two forms of love: Commonly and Heavenly. As a physician, Eryximachus claims that love appears in every part of the universe, including plants and animals and that protection results from love. Before starting his speech, Aristophanes tells the group that his discussion about love may seem completely absurd, as he explains that in the beginning one body had two people who were eventually split in half by Zeus. This is meant to explain why people are constantly looking for their “other half”. Moreover Agathon, the poet the symposium is celebrating, critiques the previous speakers by stating that they failed to praise the god of love. He claims that love rejects feebleness and embraces youthfulness while also implying that love creates justice, courage and wisdom.
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.
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.