What does Socrates have to do with Love?
Later Socrates suggests that learning to love is a step toward discovering higher beauty and truth, such as offered by philosophy. Detail from the 1869 painting ‘Plato’s Symposium’ by Anselm Feuerbach on display at the Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe, one of Germany’s more prestigious art museums. Source: Cultural Institute
How does Socrates reference the teachings of Diotima towards him?
Socrates references the teachings of Diotima towards him when it is his turn in the “Symposium” to develop his philosophy on love. Through their dialogue, the three concepts are born, that we may also consider as Socrates’ quotes about love.
How does Socrates address the group speaking as himself?
With this, Socrates addresses the group speaking as himself, having finished telling Diotima’s speech. This is why Socrates honors Love, the rights of Love, and practices them, urging others to do so as well. Quoting Diotima questioning Socrates, Plato adds another layer of distance from the reader.
How would you describe Socrates in symposium?
In Symposium, he is described as going around barefoot, rarely bathing, and being impervious to drunkenness or sexual seduction. He’s so wrapped up in philosophical dialectic, in fact, that he sometimes stops wherever he happens to be and just stands, thinking, for long stretches of time.
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What does the symposium say about love?
During the symposium, Phaedrus suggests that love is one of the oldest and strongest forces and that it inspires people to behave with good morals. Eryximachus picks up saying that love inspires order in not only people but in the arts and sciences as well.
How is Socrates viewed in the symposium?
Socrates in Plato's Symposium: a lover of wisdom who lacks wisdom on love. Traditional interpretations of the Symposium tend to treat Socrates as Plato's mouthpiece, interpreting the philosophical meaning of the text based on Socrates' speech alone.
What is it that all humans really want when they love According to Socrates?
Socrates replies that Love wants these things to become his own so that he will be happy. Diotima has Socrates agree that everyone always wants good things and happiness to be theirs forever. In that case, everyone would be a lover, but we only call certain people lovers.
What is the highest form of Love according to Socrates?
PhiliaPhilia is the highest form of love because it is a two-way road, unlike eros and agape.
What is the point of Plato's symposium?
A symposium in Greek, literally means a drinking party. But Plato's Symposium takes the occasion of a drinking party first to praise Love and then to define it. It is a philosophical dialogue, in which meaning is created in the exchange of words between the participants. Each person in turn makes a speech.
What is the nature of love in Plato's Symposium?
Plato's Symposium describes the nature of love to be the driving force towards immortality. Aristophanes perpetuates this idea through his allegorical description of human's original nature, and the component of the driving force of love within that nature.
What is the ladder of love in Plato's Symposium '?
The ladder represents the path of love as an ascent from, initially, pure physical attraction to, finally, love of divinity. The ladder of love was mentioned only in the Symposium, a philosophical text by Plato that depicts a series of speech contests from notable men in Ancient Greece.
What did Plato say about love?
Plato believed that love is the motivation that leads one to try to know and contemplate beauty in itself. This happens through a gradual process that begins with an appreciation of the appearance of physical beauty and then moves on to an appreciation of spiritual beauty.
What happened to Socrates?
In 399 B.C.E., Socrates was executed by the Athenian court on charges of impiety and corrupting the youth. The controversial decision lingers atop the great legacy of Athens, a city praised for its intellectual and political liberty.
Who is Socrates philosophy?
Who was Socrates? Socrates was an ancient Greek philosopher, one of the three greatest figures of the ancient period of Western philosophy (the others were Plato and Aristotle), who lived in Athens in the 5th century BCE.
What are the main points that Alcibiades makes about Socrates?
He praises Socrates imperviousness to his own charms, to inebriation and to the cruellest of weather. He commends the endurance which lets him stand from one dawn to the next considering a problem. He recounts Socrates courage in battle and reluctance to accept recognition for it.
Who was older Socrates or Plato?
Socrates came first, and Plato was his student, around 400 BC. The Athenians voted to kill Socrates in 399 BC.
What does Socrates say about love?
3. “Love is a madness. The madness of love is the greatest of Heaven’s blessings”. In “Phaedrus”, Socrates chances upon a young noble. Their philosophical back and forth culminates in this Socrates quote on love. Love as madness is not a new notion in our modern culture.
What did Socrates do to the philosophy of philosophy?
Socrates, then, introduced Western philosophy to a key concept in other philosophies. By putting love as the epicenter of one’s personal philosophy and the ensuing system of values and principles, they can reach the immortality of the soul. That doesn’t sound like a bad way to live gracefully.
Why is Socrates categorized as a Platonic philosopher?
Plato was Socrates’ favorite student, and some speculate that it was Plato who created Socrates as a proxy device for his own ideas and philosophies.
What does Plato say about love?
1. “ One word frees us of all the weight and pain in life, and that word is Love. ”. In another story that Plato recounts, his master also said the following on the issue of love: One day, Plato asked his teacher what is the meaning of love. Socrates responded as such: “ There is a large field outside this house.
What is Sofia Papadima's degree?
Sofia Papadima has a bachelor's degree in law. She is moonlighting as a writer and aspiring to one day gather enough experiences and turn them into ink and paper. The intricacies of the human mind and its peculiar ways have always fascinated her and urged her to explore more, not only humans but humanity as a whole, hopefully leading her to interesting findings. She is a literature, music, and movie geek to boot.
What is the ladder of ideas?
The ladder leads them to the Platonic concept of Sublime Ideas. Ideas are mere conceptual forms with no material body. And to reach the dimension of Ideas through a philosophy of Love as dialectic is to become immortal. Socrates, then, introduced Western philosophy to a key concept in other philosophies.
What is Socrates' contribution to philosophy?
Socrates is a very enigmatic personality in the history of philosophy. His main contribution is to be found in the fields of ethics and epistemology.
When it’s Socrates’s turn to give a speech, what does he suggest?
When it’s Socrates’s turn to give a speech, however, he suggests that the preceding speakers have “ [given] the appearance of praising love” without actually having done so, and he proposes to give a different kind of speech that will “tell the truth about love”—that love is actually the search for the good and the beautiful.
How does Socrates undermine Agathon's argument?
First, Socrates undermines Agathon’s argument by asking him a series of questions about the speech he just gave, which described how love is the patron and peak of all things beautiful. Socrates begins his questioning by asking: “Is it Love’s nature to be love of something or nothing?”.
What does Agathon say about Aristophanes?
In contrast, Agathon argues that the god eros, or Love, contains in itself the pinnacle of all good things and stands in need of nothing else: “Love is…supreme in beauty and excellence and…responsible for similar qualities in others.”.
What does Aristophanes mean by the desire for one another?
Aristophanes concludes that humans’ longing for one another is not just the desire for sexual satisfaction, but “the desire [for] and pursuit of wholeness.” A lover “wants to find a loved one who naturally fits [their own] character.” Tucked inside the myth Aristophanes shares is the idea that humans are fundamentally incomplete on their own, and that love—finding another person with whom one fits, like a puzzle piece—is essentially the pursuit of completion. For Aristophanes, goodness and personal completion are one and the same.
What does Aristophanes say about love?
In his speech, which consists of a myth he creates on the spot, Aristophanes argues that love is the pursuit of individual wholeness in union with another person. He says that, once upon a time, human beings looked much different. There were three genders—male, female, and androgynous.
What is the meaning of Aristophanes's idea of incompleteness?
Tucked inside the myth Aristophanes shares is the idea that humans are fundamentally incomplete on their own, and that love—finding another person with whom one fits, like a puzzle piece— is essentially the pursuit of completion. For Aristophanes, goodness and personal completion are one and the same.
Who was Apollodorus in the Symposium?
In the Symposium, the philosopher Plato’s dialogue set in Athens in the fifth century B.C., a man named Apollodorus describes a dinner party to an unnamed friend, who’s eager to hear what was discussed by famed the teacher Socrates and the other guests about love. Though Apollodorus wasn’t there himself, he tells the story based on the reports ...
How did Socrates begin his speech?
Socrates begins his speech by questioning Agathon on some of the points he made. First he... (full context)
Why was Socrates executed?
Though he left no writings of his own, he is considered the founder of Western philosophy. He was executed for alleged impiety at the end of his life.
What does Aristodemus see when he comes across Socrates?
The narrative now shifts to Aristodemus’s point of view. When Aristodemus comes across Socrates, he sees that Socrates has bathed and put on sandals, “things [ Socrates hardly ever did.”... (full context)
Why did Aristophanes make a loud noise after Socrates' speech?
After Socrates’ speech, Aristodemus said, while the others congratulated him, Aristophanes was trying to make a point , because Socrates had referred to his speech at some stage. Suddenly, there was a loud noise of knocking at the front door, which sounded like revelers, and they heard the voice of a flute-girl.
Who discussed the ways of love among animals as well as humans?
Diotima and Socrates discuss the ways of love among animals as well as humans. All mortal things continually... (full context)
Who said anyone who hears Socrates speak or hears his words reported is spellbound by his rhetorical power?
Alcibiades says that anyone who hears Socrates speak or hears his words reported is spellbound by his rhetorical power. The same is... (full context)
Did Socrates and Alcibiades fight together?
Sometime after this, Alcibiades and Socrates served together on an Athenian battle campaign. Alcibiades claims that Socrates endured the hardships of... (full context)
What does Socrates say about Eros?
Socrates then begins by compelling Agathon, in a dialectic, to admit that eros is a love of something (or someone) and must be a longing for something that it lacks ( echoing Aristophan es), and therefore eros cannot be all good and all beautiful -it must be uglier than the beauty that it longs for.
Who confirmed the details of the party with Socrates?
He openly re-tells it publicly to anyone who will listen, including a man named Apollodorus, who confirms the details with Socrates. The dialogue is entirely based on the recollection of these two individuals, principally Aristodemus, as he originally attended the party with Socrates.
Why does Alcibiades feel shame?
Alcibiades feels shame only before Socrates because of his decision to seek the honor of the demos (the many) instead of pursuing wisdom.
Why was Phaedrus a good friend of Erixymachus?
He was a good friend of Erixymachus, because of their shared interest in physics, as well as the arts and philosophy. It was later said that Phaedrus was one of Socrates’s favorites. Like Alcibiades, Phaedrus was accused of being a profaner of the Eleusian mysteries in 415 BC, and also like Alcibiades, he fled Athens.
What does Agathon say in his speech?
Agathon begins his speech by stating, that unlike previous speeches, he will open with an attempt to address the identity of eros. First, he will address his identity, and then he will acknowledge his gifts. Agathon claims that eros is the happiest god, the most beautiful, and the best.
What is the determining factor of love?
The determining factor is how one behaves, not that love is, in itself, inherently noble or base. He provides a defense of pederasty with the law, as it leads the beloved to admire his good and noble elders, and at the same time Pausanius gives a survey of Greek laws that appropriately harness a lover’s point of view.
Who was the profaner of the Eleusian mysteries?
Leo Strauss indicates this is because of the popular belief that Alcibiades was the profaner of the sacred Eleusian mysteries, when in fact it was actually Socrates as evidenced by his speech about Diotima. The recounting of the tale can only be told many years after this fact, when the demos is no longer manic.
Why does Socrates honor love?
This is why Socrates honors Love, the rights of Love, and practices them, urging others to do so as well. Analysis.
What does Socrates tell Diotima?
Socrates retells a speech he heard from Diotima, a woman he describes as wise, but who was apparently a fictitious character . Once again, the structure of the speech begins with telling of the qualities of Love before talking of his works. Diotima also questions Socrates, who used to think that Love was beautiful and good. Socrates retells this questioning. When Diotima stated this, Socrates inferred that Love was ugly and bad.
What does Diotima say about immortality?
Socrates asks if this is really true, and Diotima answers it is, using the example of honor. Humans pursue honor, wanting to become famous and immortal. They expect the memory of their virtue and brave acts to live on forever.
Why does Diotima say that a person will not pursue their other half?
Diotima states this is because a special kind of love is separated from other loves to be referred to as such. For other loves we use other words such as poetry. Diotima also refutes Aristophanes ' story, saying a person will not pursue their other half, unless the other half is good. People only love what is good.
What is Diotima's speech about love?
Diotima’s speech begins with descriptions of Love himself. Love was conceived on the day of Aphrodite’s birth to Poros (a word for resource) and Penia ( poverty). This is why Love follows Aphrodite and why he loves beauty. Being the son of Poros and Penia, Love is always poor, far from delicate and beautiful, but rather tough and always living with Need. He is also a schemer after the good and beautiful, resourceful, and in pursuit of intelligence.
How does Diotima end her speech?
Diotima ends her speech outlining what she refers to as the rites of love, otherwise referred to ask the ladder of love. First, Love leads a person to love one body and beget beautiful ideas. From these ideas, this person realizes that the beauty of one body is found in all bodies and if he is seeking beauty in form, he must see beauty in all bodies and become lover to all beautiful bodies. After that, the person moves on to thinking the beauty of souls is greater than the beauty of bodies. Here, Diotima specifically refers to giving birth through the soul to make young men better. This results in the lover seeing love in activities and laws, over the beauty of bodies. She also refers to these as beautiful customs, from which the lover loves beautiful things, or other kinds of knowledge. The lover will lastly fall on giving birth to many beautiful ideas and theories, finding love of wisdom. This love never passes away and is always beautiful. The end lesson is learning of this very Beauty (wisdom), coming to know what is beautiful. Only at this point will a lover be able to give birth to true virtue. This person will be loved by the gods and is one of the few who could become immortal.
Why does Diotima scold him?
Diotima scolds him, and they establish that just because something is not beautiful, does not automatically make it ugly. Someone can be not wise and not ignorant, understanding things (so he’s not ignorant), but not understanding the reasons behind such things (so he’s not wise).
Who painted Plato's symposium?
Detail from the 1869 painting ‘Plato’s Symposium’ by Anselm Feuerbach on display at the Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe, one of Germany’s more prestigious art museums. Source: Cultural Institute. The most memorable speech of the night – and the strangest – comes from Aristophanes. After recovering from a bout of hiccups, ...
Where is Aristophanes' love theory?
A symposium scene on a 5th century BCE Greek cup currently housed in the State Antiquities Collection in Munich, Germany. Source: Wikimedia.
What does Aristophanes say about the division of man?
As Aristophanes concludes, “After the division the two parts of man, each desiring his other half, came together, and throwing their arms about one another, entwined in mutual embraces, longing to grow into one.”.
What does Aristophanes say about the Terrible?
Aristophanes says, “Terrible was their might and strength, and the thoughts of their hearts were great, and they made an attack upon the gods.”. The gods met to discuss how they would deal with these circular attackers. Several suggested all-out slaughter.
What is Aristophanes' odd speech?
Before turning to Aristophanes’s odd speech, let’s set the stage. First, we’re at a dinner party. Wealthy Athenian men have gathered, as they often did, to drink wine, eat, philosophize, and carouse with women, younger men, or each other. On this (fictional) occasion, the guests are all playwrights and philosophers and they include Plato’s idol ...
Who is the author of the book Symposium?
Source: Wikimedia. Written 2,400 years ago, Plato ’s philosophical novella, Symposium, includes one of the weirdest – and most charming – explanations of why people fall in love ever invented. Plato gives this trippy exegesis to the playwright Aristophanes, who appears as a character in the book. Before turning to Aristophanes’s odd speech, let’s ...
Who is the most memorable speech of the night?
The most memorable speech of the night – and the strangest – comes from Aristophanes. After recovering from a bout of hiccups, the playwright starts his speech. Instead of an intellectual discourse, he tells a story, a myth of the origins of love.
