Diotima's Argument Concerning The Nature Of Desire

Diotima’s discussion concerning the nature of desire is that the source of Eros is desire to possess good for eternity and we must also desire immortality.

Diotima claims that love is the desire to possess good for eternity and we must also desire immortality. People only love what is good, as we will not pursue another individual unless that individual is good. Happiness is when the desire to have good and beautiful things. Thus, saying the lover of beautiful things desires “that they become his own” (Symposium, 50). However, we desire what we do not possess. The good is happiness, which is believe to be the end itself that is when the lover of good things has what he desire, only then he will have happiness. Thus, seeking for this individuals may get confused with beauty and instead of seeking an experience they search for the sensory version of beauty and not the intellectual beauty.

Nevertheless, some are still to be in love and others are not. Diotima states that these are both different types of love. Everyone pursues love differently, one has to be devoted completely to a certain kind of love to belong to the whole of love. Such as, if someone was devoted to solely sports or music they would be called an athlete or musician, they also have other names in other portion of the field.

This same notion can go for love. As, we all desire beautiful things and happiness which is a small part of love. Those who “making money, philosophy – we don’t say these people are in love, and we don’t call them lovers” (Symposium, 51). We look for beautiful things, which may be in another person and if they weren’t beautiful we wouldn’t search for them, because they are not what we desire forever which is beauty. In the end we love what is beautiful and that we can possess