Abstraction of Love
In the symposium, Plato discusses the many strong meanings of love through the conversation of characters at a symposium, or dinner party, in which the guests take turns on stating their views on love. Before the discussions begin the guests eat and afterward they begin the conversation. Before the speeches are given there are a few statements regarding drinking alcohol. The guests say they shouldn't drink heavily but in fact most of the guest if not all already have consumed a large amount of alcohol. So we could come to the conclusion that most of the speeches are given by people who are drunk. The views expressed about love in the novel are in many ways controversial and could be strongly argued in many ways. I believe that love was heavily treasured in the time period of the symposium and that today love is many times misused and has no real value to many people. The first speaker is Phaedrus and his main focus was that love is extremely old. He refers to love as a God and says that the God of love is one of the oldest Gods. As long as humans have walked the planet there had to have been some form of love in order for humans to have evolved. Another important statement made by Phaedrus
The most important speaker is Socrates. Socrates arrives late because he was thinking on the way to the symposium. He knows it is going to be difficult to follow all the wonderful speeches just given but he tries to deliver a magnificent speech anyway. Socrates delivers a speech that is very difficult to translate and is very deep in context. He refers many times to Agathon and many times asks Agathon for his opinions. Socrates says that according to Agathon, since that the gods are organized through a love of beautiful things than love must be love of beauty, which in turn implies that Love itself must be wholly without beauty. Then for the first time someone admits to being wrong. Agathon admitted to Socrates that some of his statements were wrong, showing that everyone at the symposium has a deep respect for Socrates and everything he says. Socrates says that he has learned everything about the subject of love from a woman named Diotima and that he is going to pass all that he has learned from her to his friends. Socrates makes many statements about love, saying that not everything must be one thing or opposite. Love does not have to be good or bad; everything about love can have a compromise to it. Socrates makes a great comparison between love and spirits, the communicators between humans and gods, and that love is somewhere in-between everything. For the duration of the speech Socrates makes many statements which he learned from Diotima that are very complex and very hard to explain in plain words. But in many cases Socrates contradicts statements made by previous speakers, which suggest that Socrates is the wisest man there. At the end of the symposium everyone ends up drunk except for Socrates. The next speaker is Eryximachus, the doctor, and he states that love is not only found in human interactions but also in many other places, like medicine, athletics, agriculture, and music. No matter which way we practice love it is still promoting order and improving the lives of people. Eryximachus finishes up by saying that love is one of the most powerful things in our lives and is the cause of all self-control, happiness, and justice. He is basically saying that loves controls and governs our lives. In his speech
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1506
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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