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In this paper, I will attempt to convey what I believe is the deeper meaning behind Alcibiades’s speech at the end of Plato’s Symposium after explaining a little bit of context. Alcibiades’s speech, by itself, initially makes no sense to the modern day reader. It mainly relates his struggles with being the lover of Socrates. If you can understand the Ancient Greek traditions of loved ones and lovers, Alcibiades’s struggles with being Socrates’s “lover” is confusing. Since Alcibiades is younger than Socrates, Socrates should be the lover rather than the “loved one.” Alcibiades laments that Socrates rejects his love and advances. However, Socrates, in his own way, is loving Alcibiades. Socrates spoke earlier in the text about a woman, Diotima’s, ladder of love. He speaks of what she taught him of different levels of love. According to Diotima, there’s a general kind of love, which is the desire of good things and of being happy. A specific kind of love is a rational love. This is the kind of love that seeks good things, but realizes that to seek good things, one must understand what “good” is. To understand what good is, says Socrates, one must discuss with others, asking questions and thinking …show more content…
Socrates has the rational kind of love and believes that love is spending time together and having deep discussions in search of truth. Alcibiades’s love is an honor-seeking love. His idea of love is being revered by the masses and gaining honor and glory. This is why the break in Alcibiades and Socrates’s relationship happened. Alcibiades wanted to be Socrate’s loved one/lover in order to gain some of Socrates’s knowledge. The reason that he wants knowledge is not for its truth, but for the “power” that it awards Socrates. He praises Socrates’s power to capture an audience with his words. He wants to get closer to Socrates to learn how to get the power and admiration Socrates receives from his
In Symposium, a selection from The Dialogues of Plato, Plato uses historical allusions to demonstrate Alcibiades’ frustration with both social expectations for the phallus and his inability to meet these expectations. Alcibiades’ inability to have a productive sexual relationship effectively castrates him and demonstrates the impotence caused by an overemphasis on eroticism. The tragedy of Alcibiades is that he realizes he is unable to gain virtue through sexual relationships and will therefore be forced to remain mortal, yet he is unable to alter his condition.
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 ...
For these two articles that we read in Crito and Apology by Plato, we could know Socrates is an enduring person with imagination, because he presents us with a mass of contradictions: Most eloquent men, yet he never wrote a word; ugliest yet most profoundly attractive; ignorant yet wise; wrongfully convicted, yet unwilling to avoid his unjust execution. Behind these conundrums is a contradiction less often explored: Socrates is at once the most Athenian, most local, citizenly, and patriotic of philosophers; and yet the most self-regarding of Athenians. Exploring that contradiction, between Socrates the loyal Athenian citizen and Socrates the philosophical critic of Athenian society, will help to position Plato's Socrates in an Athenian legal and historical context; it allows us to reunite Socrates the literary character and Athens the democratic city that tried and executed him. Moreover, those help us to understand Plato¡¦s presentation of the strange legal and ethical drama.
By studying a variety of events and people involved in the Peloponnesian War and the Theban play Antigone, it becomes noticeable that many of these events and people can be explained through Platonic terms. Throughout the Republic, Plato conveys his philosophical thoughts about democracy, justice, and education in a society through his main character Socrates. As Socrates encounters many enlightened people of his time, he questions them on rhetorical issues dealing with society and human nature. As these issues begin to unfold, events and people in the past seem to illustrate many of the main concepts in the Republic. After looking at Socrates' discussions throughout books I, IV, VI, and VII we will notice that they relate to many events that happened prior to the writing of the Republic such as the Sicilian Expedition, the debate at Sparta in 432, and Creon's implementation of justice in the Theban play Antigone by Sophacles.
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 the Symposium, written by Plato, Socrates and others engage in a dialogue in the home of Agathon on love. Instead of "singing the honours" (94) of love like the other participants, Socrates uses a retelling of a discussion that he had with a woman named Diotima to tell the audience of what he perceives to be the truth of love.
To begin with, Socrates is obviously a proud man, and when he declares that he will never give way to anyone for the sake of h...
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.
This apparent and perhaps truthful preference of philosophy over Alcibiades is what causes Alcibiades to be exceedingly vehement and motivates his rather acrimonious speech in the Symposium. Alcibiades fell in love with Socrates for his philosophical skills and his speeches, telling him, “You, in my opinion, have proved to be the only deserving lover of mine.” As the younger and more beautiful one, Alcibiades had assumed that he would develop a relationship with Socrates that was similar to that of Agathon and Pausanius’ relationship. The older, wiser lover, Pausanius, pursued the beautiful and clever beloved, Agathon. Yet when Socrates failed to act as a conventional lover, Alcibiades decided to take the lead and spend more time with him. Regardless of his efforts, Socrates was seemingly immune to his youth and beauty, says Alcibiades to the
Sophocles demonstrates a very important and serious idea throughout the play: Love can be extremely dangerous if it is left uncontrolled. Antigone and Creon meet
Plato, and G. M. A. Grube. Five Dialogues. 2nd ed. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Pub., 2002. Print.
(37) The problem is that many of the citizens of Athens who wanted Socrates dead, lacked that emotional intelligence and thought highly of themselves. So of course they become defensive when Socrates sheds light on the idea that they may be wrong. As someone who cared most about the improvement of the soul, Socrates would have made a constructive role model to the criminals of Athens, as he would go on saying, “virtue is not given by money, but that from virtue comes money and every other good of man…”(35) Socrates was able to benefit everyone alike as he had human wisdom- something that all the Athenians could relate
Imagine the time just after the death of Socrates. The people of Athens were filled with questions about the final judgment of this well-known, long-time citizen of Athens. Socrates was accused at the end of his life of impiety and corruption of youth. Rumors, prejudices, and questions flew about the town. Plato experienced this situation when Socrates, his teacher and friend, accepted the ruling of death from an Athenian court. In The Last Days of Socrates, Plato uses Socrates’ own voice to explain the reasons that Socrates, though innocent in Plato’s view, was convicted and why Socrates did not escape his punishment as offered by the court. The writings, “Euthyphro,” “The Apology,” “Crito,” and “Pheado” not only helped the general population of Athens and the friends and followers of Socrates understand his death, but also showed Socrates in the best possible light. They are connected by their common theme of a memoriam to Socrates and the discussion of virtues. By studying these texts, researchers can see into the culture of Athens, but most important are the discussions about relationships in the book. The relationships between the religion and state and individual and society have impacted the past and are still concerns that are with us today.
Plato, Phaedrus, trans. R. Hackforth, in Edith Hamilton and Huntington Cairns, eds. The Collected Dialogues of Plato (New York: Pantheon, 1966).
Socrates has been leading a philosophical life and spends his whole life examing what the truth is. The truth here is a tangible truth, whereas it is more likely to be the rules or the orders of the world. In Socrates’s defense, he expresses the idea that he is a gift or a messenger that is sent to Athenians by the god. His task is to talk to others and then discuss intriguing and valuable problems with people in order to find out the most worthy and useful truth and wisdom for human beings because humans only know a little about themselves and the world in fact. “Whereas just as I don’t know anything, I don’t think I do either.” ( The