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. Platonic love is in my opinion, the most important and vital aspect of love. Without platonic love people are ...
The Symposium, The Aeneid, and Confessions help demonstrate how the nature of love can be found in several places, whether it is in the mind, the body or the soul. These texts also provide with eye-opening views of love as they adjust our understanding of what love really is. By giving us reformed spectrum of love, one is able to engage in introspective thinking and determine if the things we love are truly worthy of our sentiment.
Socrates stuns the Symposium when he tells how Diotima showed him that “Love is neither beautiful nor good,” thus contradicting the theme of all speeches before his (201E). Diotima’s logic begins by postulating that love is equivalent to desire. This statement is supported by Aristophanes’s speech in which he describes the origin of human nature.
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.
The Definition of Love Love by definition is an emotion explored in philosophy, religion, and literature, often as either romantic love, the fraternal love of others, or the love of God based on the definition found in The Encarta Encyclopedia. As I explored the definitions through the Internet, books, and articles, I noticed the definitions changed quite a bit, but yet had the same basic understanding. The definition I found in The Encarta Encyclopedia is probably the most simple and most basic. It refers to love in the whole aspect, which is Godly, fraternal, and romantic. All of which can only be defined by one word and that is love.
Love – a simple four letter word shrouded in mystery and many different meanings. Philosophers, poets, and writers have all tried to discern the significance or concept of love for many centuries. Plato, for example, was one such philosopher who in his work the Symposium (which means “Drinking Party”) wrote about “Eros” – the term for sexual love in Greek. The Symposium was written approximately around 384 and 379 B.C.E., and follows five elite Athenian men as they pronounce their admiration of Eros while lounging on couches listening to flute girls play in the distance. Each of the men has different backgrounds ranging from tragic poet, comedian, doctor, playboy, and even Socrates himself (Norton). All these characters bring diverse views on the subject of love, and each speaker seems to build on the last enhancing the story. Times have changed so much since Plato wrote The Symposium is it possible to compare Plato’s ornate description of love to love in the modern world? Love today is much like love in Plato’s time, and I believe people today are still searching for their “other half” – the missing piece, for it is a complete love which makes us better people.
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.
Diotima told Socrates Love is a learning experience growing with age, first learning Beauty by sight, coveting objects, progressively growing to the beauty of a developing body, therefore expanding eventually to the greatest Beauty of all, our souls. Love holds many forms, and while many pursue to reproduce sexually, others have sought to reproduce thoughts and philosophies as their offspring. Our conception of love grows as we do. Finally we discover the Beauty of Love in all
“ Love” is the most romantic, powerful and meaningful to each human being on the earth, but what exactly is the meaning of “ love” ? Some say love is a streak of sunshine to light the darkness; some say love is an umbrella to keep them away from sadness; some say love is the fountain of happiness; in addition, a speaker , Phaedrus , who is from the book “ Plato’s Symposium”, said that “ Love is one of the most ancient gods”(This is a quote from the book, p873). Indeed, the love of god had given her great love to me since I were born, and so that I can write an essay as a newborn free man. However, as I look around that people who stand beside me and come alone with me, and no matter how lost I get they never abandon me, they always stick up for me. Why? Because this is what love is. So, I realize that love is simple that I can find it everywhere.
Love is a strong affection for another individual based on personal ties according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary. Love has mean definitions throughout the world we live in today. In some cultures, love has been defined as the sexual devotion of a mother for her child and in other cultures the essence of love was the chaste devotion of a knight for another man’s wife(pg520). Although love has many definitions and interpretations it can be looked at in two perspectives. One perspective which is rooted in practical help and affection. Also, another perspective that only focuses on affection. In the perspective which practical help and some affection shows love for a person the individuals have to be in a mutually beneficial relationship were
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.
It is uneasy to accept the fact that the way our society is set up is changing; things are not what our history books have said to be anymore. Some changes are, indeed are for the worse, causing despair and agony, but, there are some changes that bring people closer, help spread love and have the vibrancy of beautifying unexplainable emotions flowing. This beautiful change is spreading like the unstoppable virus, captivating the hearts of those stone cold citizens who prefer to live the way our “norms” are set up. This beautiful change is no other than love, same-sex love. Or decades, those who were lesbian or gay have struggled, bullied, tortured, and disowned by their friend and families and all toward what? Because they were different, because they did not live up to the society 's norms, because they fell in love. Our society needs to stop defining the meaning of love; let our hearts define it
Assisted through the genetic nature of man and woman to reproduce, meaningful devotion to someone of the opposite sex is love in its more rewarding and challenging form. When you find the right individual, the emotions triggered can provide a reaction that can never be repeated. As in many stories of the past, such some written by Shakespeare, real love between a man and woman is able to overcome any challenge or obstacle laid before it. One of the most famous being the story of Romeo and Juliet, where family hatred could not halt the magic and desire between a man and woman who found their destiny with each other. Tragically the story ends with the irony that the pure joy of love between them never fully was achieved as death was their reward. Unfortunately, this foreshadowing is a whimsical representation of the relationships of couples today. With the ever increasing divorce rate, I see a redefining of this form of love for future generations. As the bond between man and woman is quickly eroded with minute effort, the challenge of maintaining an intimate loving relationship with a single person today is truly the most significant obstacle for society in general moving
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.
What exactly is love? Is there an absolute meaning to the word - love? Or is it purely subjective? The concept of true love is what we search for all our lives. Yet love is one of the most misunderstood concepts of all. What people really want more than anything else is to be loved unconditionally; to be accepted for who we are, and still be loved. Sometimes we will do some crazy things, "in the name of love."
Hello How are you doing today? hope you are okay and people around you as well.I am at my room when I'm writing you this.,i couldn't stop thinking about you..I DO believe everyone deserve to be love.