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The philosophical conception of beauty
The philosophical conception of beauty
The philosophical conception of beauty
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The notion that “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” isn’t compatible with Diotima’s account of love. The “beholder” must know what true virtue is in order to understand what beauty is, if the beholder is ignorant to this then they don’t possess true virtue. These people don’t seek beauty, they seek the object of beauty. By making beauty an object they have already gone against Diotima’s teachings. In the “Symposium”, Diotima gave many examples to Socrates leading to the true revelation as to what love is. Diotima explains that love cannot be a god because a god would need beautiful and good things in order to be a god, but if a god couldn’t have these things they wouldn’t be considered a god or mortal but a spirit. “Then how can he be
know beauty in any form”(86). We are so conditioned to see female beauty as what men
Socrates tells Agathon that Diotima, a woman who advised him on the matters of love, had asked him the same series of questions before. This leads Socrates to ask Diotima, `if Love is neither beautiful nor good, is it ugly and bad?' Diotima says no, because the nature of love is in between the opposites of ugly and beautiful, good and bad.
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.
“Love is many splendid thing, all you need is love,” this quote is from one of my favorite songs entitled Elephant Love Medley which is featured in the movical (a movie musical), Moulin Rouge. The song is a duet between Christian, a playwright, and Satine, the lead actress of his current play, Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman play the two roles. This song is a compilation of love songs that were qui (Kidman, McGregor and Leguizamo)te popular during the 20th century, Christian is singing to Satine trying to convince her that they can love each other and that nothing else matters. When I was reading Plato’s Symposium this song kept playing in my mind for the fact that it addresses different kinds of love, or eros, which is the main concept of the Symposium, just with a different approach.
The concept of beauty is a subject society speaks on through many channels. Social media plays a tremendous role in how society measures beauty and how to achieve these impossible standards. People from all walks of life have become obsessed with the idea of beauty and achieving the highest level it. In many cases, those who do not meet societal views of what is “beautiful” can become very resentful to these predisposed notions of beauty. David Akst in his writing “What Meets the Eye”, is bitter toward women and their ongoing obsession with beauty.
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.
In the Aeneid, love is depicted as an uncontrollable emotion. Venus and Juno promote the romance between Dido and Aeneas. Dido, the queen of Carthage, begins to fall in love with Aeneas, even though she has vowed to her late husband that she would set her “face against marriage” (Virgil 975). Aeneas falls in love with Dido and remains with her in Carthage, even though he knows that he must continue his travel to Rome. Love is a passion which consumes the soul in spite of its will. It is an “inward fire” (Virgil 976). Juno arranges it so that Dido and Aeneas consummate their love in a cave during a storm. Again, mortals have little or no control over their loves. The gods are the ones who cause people to fall in love.
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.
Turia Pitt, a woman from Australia suffered burns over her face and body, her beauty was gone; however, her fiancé Michael Hoskins did not leave her because he fell in love with her inner beauty. (Sinha) Michael found the true meaning of love and although her physical beauty was gone, he stayed by her side because of her personality. In Symposium by Plato which is a work of different speeches from men on their interpretation of eros- love. Plato uses a conversation between Socrates and Diotima to explain the concept of beauty. Diotima was a coach to Socrates in his understanding of what the true meaning of love. Through, their conversation Plato stressed that when physical beauty fads all that is left is inner beauty. Plato’s analog is still
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. The literal meaning is that the perception of beauty is subjective. English poet, playwright, and actor, one who is outstandingly regarded as possible the greatest writer to English language goes by the name of William Shakespeare, and his written about this very idea. Shakespeare was born in 1564 in England, and lived a life span of fifty two years, passing away in 1616. While Shakespeare was born near the end of the Renaissance era, and was the first to bring about the time’s core value’s to stage, he also composed a series of sonnets, even having his own sonnet known as the Shakespearean Sonnet. Love was a focal point, any poet who was a great poet wrote about love, and falsely compared it to perfection in the eye of the composer. Shakespeare himself wrote about perfection in the features of his lover; however in Sonnet 130, he explores a different, deeper truer side to love. Despite his mistress’s physical flaws, he loves her incomparably. ...
Many parallels can be observed between the Symposium and Republic; first, I will focus on two main theories of love presented in the former – that of Aristophanes and Socrates’ (Diotima). Throughout the Symposium, eros is used as an instrument to talk about true desire. Crude perspectives about the nature and purpose of love are given by Socrates’ associates until Socrat...
“Love is the state in which man sees things most decidedly as they are not. The power of illusion is at its peak here, as is the power to sweeten and transfigure. In love man endures more, man bears everything. A religion had to be invented in which one could love: what is worst in life is thus overcome – it is not even seen any more.”
This description is not of lustrous beauty, but of the true love he felt for her. This statement and
Plato completely understood love and this is why he never got married. He was a great philosopher and communicated and learned from of great philosophers ex. Socrates and Aristotle. Plato believed that love got people hooked and got them to do abnormal things. "Love is a serious mental disease." and then he goes on to say "Love is the joy of the good, the wonder of the wise, the amazement of the gods.
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.