Conversation of west - Plato

SOCRATES AS THE EMBODIMENT OF LOVE

The symposium is one manifestation of Greek 's culture . Symposium is a drinking party in which thinkers try to arrive on a certain truth . They engage in drinking to let them freely express their ideas . In a symposium , thinkers exchange ideas and try to find which thinker possesses the highest truth . At the end of a symposium , it is viewed that the thinkers arrived to a certain truth

Socrates is one of the best Greek philosophers ever known . He was made famous by his notion of

wisdom . For him ignorance is wisdom and who admits ignorance is a wise man . His philosophy is best captured by the line I know that I do not know , a line that until today has been the focus of a lot of studies

Socrates ' life has been seen as an embodiment of love . He devoted his life in loving . But what do we mean by love ? In the context of the Symposium , Diotima said , love falls between ignorance and wisdom and love is a great lover of wisdom . Diotima and Socrates also agreed that love is the desire to have the good forever . In this notion of love , Socrates really became an embodiment of love . Love is not having all the wisdom but it is the constant devotion to have it . It is in the humility of man which accepts the fact the he do not know everything . He devoted his life in search for wisdom . He did not cease in finding wisdom . For him , finding wisdom is a life long dedication This is a never ending process . He also understands that man is always in constant search for wisdom and that this constant search is a dynamic process . A man cannot assimilate everything in an instant but with a life long dedication , man becomes wise in embracing the idea that he doesn 't know everything- he doesn 't have the absolute knowledge

Socrates in his life showed that he has the desire to have the good forever . Socrates in his daily life seeks wisdom from different people asking them questions in his pursuit of such . Wandering like a fly , he seeks wisdom in different places and people . Wisdom is good and as Socrates desire for wisdom , he also desires the good . This is what love is all about . It is in pursuit of the good- wisdom

As further discussed by Diotima , since love is the desire to have the good forever , we must desire immortality as well as the good , and in reproduction we come closest to immortality , this was also embodied by Socrates . Aside from being a seeker of wisdom , he is also a teacher to the youth . In being a teacher , he banners the reproduction of love in achieving immortality . Immortality does not mean Socrates as having an immortal life but giving wisdom its immortality by passing it to other people and by letting it grow from generation to generation . This is the metaphorical meaning...