![]() ![]() His is a professional, mechanical, chlorophorm-smelling definition of love. He is offering practical advice and street wise type of knowledge. is a justification, a hymn of homosexuality. Base love’s object: women and young boys Noble love’s object Young men. Introduces the distinction between the celestial love and the market love. HOST : Agathon - tragic poet who gives the party.Īlcibiades – soldier of fortune - crashes the party.īenefactor of humankind, the inspiration of honor (a man would rather die than appear as a coward in the eyes of his beloved) and the spirit of self-sacrifice. The Symposium of Plato A Platonic Dialogue byĪpolloddrus relates to a friend the eventsĪnd speeches which were reported to him by Aristodemus. Readġ) The Dialogue Symposium Written 360 B.C.E Translated by Benjamin Jowett Socrates and to Diotima as the source of his ideas.Ī statue of Eros possibly done by a Roman artistĪre 1)the dialogue and 2)an overview and 3)a summary of it. In this dialogue Plato is giving a credit or reference to Provides a lesson the reveals Plato’s idea of the Eternal and Idealįorms. Tells of his instruction as to the nature of Love and Beauty from a woman, That when Socrates turn to speak comes, after questioning Agathon, he When you read the dialogue you should note When males gather at drinking parties the most popular topics are often Practices, they decided to each take turn speaking about love. ThereĪt the party, instead f becoming drunk and entering into orgiastic Were invited back to the house for a party. Then Plato would enter the discussion with dialectical questioning and It gives a sampling of what it might be like to attend a class atĮach present what they know from their own perspective or discipline and At least one commentator has speculated that Plato wrote thisĭialogue as a form of brochure for his Academy in Athens. The various speakers take turns, as it were, each offering what he knowsįrom his own perspective and then Socrates presents a view that can place In as much as, Socrates does not question the others in the dialectical It is one of the most important texts on love, and it provides insight into Plato’s philosophical system.This dialogue is unlike the others of Plato, ![]() The Symposium is among the most beautiful of the philosophical dialogues written by Plato, and it is very readable. This is what is known as Platonic Love: a love that unites souls by uniting them with the truth. This love of the truth is what distinguishes the philosopher. In the dialogue, Plato, vis-a-vis Socrates, argued the highest love is the philosopher’s love of the truth, contained in the Forms. However, many of the speeches make valid points about love, and each one can be seen as taking us nearer the truth.įor Socrates, love was a spirit that helps a person better understand the fundamental nature of reality, or Forms. In the work, Plato rejected the idea that love is about desire and sexual gratification. The Symposium is very important in the philosophical tradition. Socrates dragging Alcibiades from the Embrace of Sensual Pleasure, by Jean-Baptiste Regnault, 1791 Soon everyone passed out, except the philosopher, who left and went about his business. The party becomes chaotic and disorderly. Alcibiades’ story showed that Socrates had no interest in sexual pleasure. In Ancient Greece, sexual relationships between males were tolerated, and those between an older man and a younger man were considered praiseworthy. He interrupted everyone to tell them how he tried to seduce Socrates. ![]() He showed how love can help the human mind ascend to a higher, eternal realm, one beyond the temporal world of the senses.Īt this point, the notorious Alcibiades, who is very drunk and rowdy, butted in. One of the most important Forms was the form of beauty, and Socrates said love can guide a person to its contemplation. The Forms were the essence of things from which flow what we perceive as reality they are called ‘ideas’ in some translations. ![]() Thus, love is the desire or spirit which lifts the human soul to the knowledge of the Forms. Socrates held that the world of the senses is based on Forms which exist in an eternal realm. It is a spirit or daimon and it mediates between the gods and men, reproducing itself either through the birth of new beings or new ideas. Love was a spirit, Socrates learned, that helped us to attain what we desired and needed. He then told the following story: He once met a wise woman, who called herself Diotima. He disagreed with Agathon, stating that he mistook the object of love with its intrinsic nature. Alcibades being taught by Socrates, François-André Vincent, 1776 ![]()
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