Diotima's Ladder Of Love: The Meaning Of Life

Everyone has their own idea of what makes life meaningful and what the meaning of life is. Every life should be attempting to be meaningful, because life is the most valuable thing any person could hold, because it is priceless. Sure, money can be used to buy the necessities of life, food, shelter, and medicine and make life more comfortable. It doesn’t matter how much money a person has, they cannot buy more life or another life, making the one they have priceless. In order to take full advantage of this life, they must give it meaning. The meaning of life can be found through love, friends, pleasure, and values. The “true” definition is subjective, based on the morals, values, and goals of the person. A meaningful life means something different

To me, I view love as not only a mutually deep connection between two people who want to spend the rest of their lives, or the foreseeable future, together, but also to care for others, like family and friends. I don’t agree with the idea’s in Diotima’s Ladder of Love, in fact I find it to be quite estranged. It makes it seem like each step or “love” is just a means to an end to ultimately reach the forums. Love is not a step to be checked off of a life, it is more important than that. I think the idea of creating an immortal love is possible, whether through reproduction or simply having a love and connection so strong that stories are told about it to future generations, which would continue a person’s legacy in a similar way as

““On the view of these philosophers, a life can be meaningful only if it can mean something to someone, and not just to someone, but to someone other than oneself and indeed someone of more intrinsic or ultimate value than oneself.” (The Meanings of Lives, page 13) Of course, not everyone is going to have the same values. However, in order to have a successful society, people must pursue values that are not only important to themselves, but will also benefit and impact others. I agree with this, however I believe it is important that they value benefit both the person and others. Doing something just for someone else all the time is not fair to the person doing the actions. They must live their life with things that are of value to them too. However, always only doing things that are of value to a person and only benefit that person is selfish. Again, balance is important and must be achieved between the