Socrates`idea of love

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23 October 2006

Socrates ' Idea of Love in The Symposium

The Symposium constitutes the most concentrated rendition of Plato 's idea of love and beauty as the object of love . Written in approximately 385 B .C . this dialogue The Symposium takes place at the house of Agathon , a playwright who has recently won an award for his first tragedy It is attended by Phaedrus , Pausanias , Eryximachus Aristophanes , Agathon , and Socrates . The Athenian general Alcibiades makes an appearance at the end

p Each of these men speak in turn about love . The speakers participate in such an that Phaedrus , speaking about base homosexual love and lust speaks first . Each subsequent speaker addresses love on a level higher than the previous speaker until Socrates speaks of the most noble love a mystical desire for beauty and eternity . This of presentation coincides with Plato 's notion of the material versus the ideal . According to Plato , there was a continuum for virtually all things that ranged from the base material world to the Platonic ideal existing in heaven or eternity

The first speaker in The Symposium is Phaedrus . He speaks of Eros , the god of love . He praises Eros and argues that Eros is the first of the gods and therefore holds a special place worthy of praise . Phaedrus declares that Eros is the "source of greatest benefits to us (Plato 167 . He claims that "I know not of any greater blessing to a young man who is beginning life than a virtuous lover , or to the lover than a beloved youth (Plato , 167 . Evidently Phaedrus is speaking of a young man who has just reached the age where he is beginning to develop his adult personality and habit , not a "beloved youth " still in childhood

Phaedrus argues that the principle that should guide men who wish to live nobly is not "kindred , nor honor , nor wealth , nor any other motive " but love (Plato , 167 . It becomes clear that Phaedrus is talking about homosexual love when he begins to justify his beliefs and speaks of a state or army made up only of lovers . He alleges that a man and his lover would both behave more nobly because each would be embarrassed if his lover saw him act ignobly or to show cowardice . Only love of this kind would inspire men to fight bravely to protect his lover . Ordinary men would turn into heroes in battle rather than disappoint their lovers (Plato , 167

Interestingly , this notion appeared to have been a well-known theory in Greece at this time "By Plato 's day , the idea that love of other men made warriors brave in battle had become a popular clichy in Greek Society (Crompton , 23 . Within a few years of the writing of The Symposium in 385 B .C , such an army was established . The Sacred Band of Thebes was established by the Theban general Gorgidas in 378 B .C . The company of soldiers was...