Plato’s Symposium opens as Apollodorus retells a story he heard that takes place at a dinner party in honor of Agathon. Eryximachus suggests that all of the patrons at the table should give a speech to praise the god of Love. Socrates, through his speech and actions, appears to argue that being in love with a person is an inferior type of love that one can experience. Agathon’s speech, the one that prompts Socrates’ reply, praises Love to be young, beautiful, sensitive and wise. Agathon believes that all of our virtues are gifts that we receive from this God. However, Socrates jumps in, arguing that Agathon has only described the object of love, and not Love itself. He continues, and recounts his discussion with Diotima, whom he claims he learned everything about love from. He states that Diotima taught him that “love [is] neither beautiful nor good” (321). Socrates argues that Love is neither a God nor a mortal, but is a sort of spirit that muses between a person and the object of his desire. While love itself is not wise and youthful and beautiful like Agathon claims it is, Socrates believes that love is the desire for this wise, youthful and beautiful things. He …show more content…
This universal passion for happiness, in the most general sense, is what Love embodies” (306). However, further, in the same speech, Socrates emphasizes that “some feel [love], for instance, when they do business and make money, others by playing sports, and still others through philosophy”, which all appear to be acceptable forms of love according to Socrates (306). Being in love with a person, though, he argues is a form that “only when people devote themselves to one kind of love, sexual love, make use of the words ‘love’ and ‘lover’, words which really ought to belong to the whole spectrum of human action”