Plato's Symposium Analysis

Is It True:

A central idea to Plato’s The Symposium is the idea that we should take Diotima’s ladder in order to see pure virtue and beauty in itself. Once achieved, we can become immortal through our virtuous actions. Plato writes about the end result of Diotima’s staircase as “he’ll be able to give birth not just to images of virtue, but to true virtue…has the chance of becoming loved by the gods, and immortal” (50). By seeing beauty in itself and virtue in all things, it makes the viewer more optimistic and inclined to offer more helpful and effective criticisms to those trying to achieve immortality themselves. For me, an example can be brought up from chess. Such as in Diotima’s great sea of knowledge, I see the beauty (in this

Those that achieve immortality are those that have done something beyond ordinary, something that deserves our recognition forever. Whether this is in sports (Olympians train for hours on end each day), space exploration (who doesn’t know Neil Armstrong), or the arts (Picasso), immortality can be achieved through hours of effort poured into a subject. In areas one is passionate about, one is willing to spend more time and effort in than what they normally would contribute. Personally, I couldn’t give a history paper more than three hours to write. Yet for this Adler read, the opposite is true. For me, figure skating was one of these things I was passionate about. Because I had sincerely wanted to be on the ice at 5 in the morning each day, I set myself up to finish 9th at nationals for my division, cementing my own sort of immortality. A passion for piano has done the same sort of thing as well. I have been able to make it into New Trier’s highest Jazz band junior year and have been able to play around the Chicago land area with my own jazz band for gigs. It is this passion for the beauty in both figure skating and jazz where I have created my own immortality. This passion wouldn’t have been first started without seeing the beauty behind the form. If I hadn’t seen the man

However, there is some clash in my belief of emotions and their ability to guide one towards virtue. One of my personal truth is that emotions should play a role, not the entire role, in decision making. If there is no deeper meaning, such as economics reasons, why do something that you hate for something that you love? The way I decide what I hate and love is based off my emotions. When I play jazz or skate on the ice, I feel liberated and dare say happy. Yet when I am reading about the Civil War from an age old textbook sitting in a dimly lit room, I feel bored and unenthusiastic. Yet Plato seems to argue a more rational instinct method of looking at things as opposed to my emotional method of evaluation. To Diotima and Socrates (not as especially), there is beauty in everything, while my emotions drive me away from many subjects. So while I agree that I should follow Diotima’s idea in seeing beauty in everything, my personal truth on emotions clash with this newfound