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Plato's Symposium

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Through the speakers presented in Symposium, Plato showcases a variety of viewpoints about the essence, worth, and expression of love. Though it can be argued that Plato suggests that love is determined by how an individual chooses to interpret it, I will be arguing that there is a difference between true love and false love. These differences in quality of love can be seen through the ideas expressed in Pausanias’ speech, Eryximachus’ speech, and finally, Diotima’s speech. I would like to note that though these three speeches highlight the differences in forms of love, they all have different definitions on what those forms are and how they should be expressed. Pausanias’ speech In his speech, Pausanias explains the difference between two …show more content…

He further highlights this point when he says that it is his responsibility as a physician to rid a person of the false love while accepting and providing them with true love. Though both speakers have different viewpoints on what can be loved, they agree that there is a true or false love. Through the points made by these speakers, Plato is seen shifting from the idea that love is up to the individual, and moves towards the idea that there are established interpretations of love and one is true while the other is …show more content…

Towards the end of her speech, she introduces the idea of a ladder of love. She explains that near the bottom step of the ladder, a person starts to love one person and begins to love the beautiful qualities the find in them. After this, the person comes to the realization that since what they love in that person are these beautiful qualities, they can find these qualities in all beautiful people. This takes them up the ladder from loving one beautiful person to loving all beautiful people. To move higher up on the ladder, the person will begin to love the beauty found in souls than the beauty found in physical people. It is extremely hard to get to the top step of the ladder, because it requires the person to have a complete appreciation and love for the beautiful qualities and ideas. “To love one single body and beget there beautiful discourses; next, to recognize that the beauty on anybody whatever is akin to that on any other body, and if it is necessary to pursue the beautiful as it attaches to form, it is quite unreasonable to believe that the beauty on all bodies is not one and the same.” (155,

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Plato creates an interesting character to his work, Symposium, with the addition of Diotima. Diotima is the only woman introduced during the all-male symposium and there is an essential understanding of life that comes from her being a woman. Symposiums that were held during the time of ancient Greece were strictly for males and their ideas. Women had no place, except for decoration.  Plato choosing to add a female figure is out of the ordinary and quite surprising.

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The language in Plato’s symposium and the expression of Sappho’s poetry are similar in that they both deal with homoerotic love. Sappho, the only ancient Greek female author whose work survived, talks from the female point of observation, where as Plato’s work concentrates on the idea of love among males. In spite of the fact that both of their points of view are comparative in courses, for example, their thoughts of physical fascination and want, Plato’s work creates a better understanding of the nature of love then Sappho’s ideas. This understanding will be shown with three arguments and counter- arguments in order to demonstrate the dominance of Plato over Sappho. It will than be concluded with an overview of the main idea and a recap of the three arguments made for Plato.

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Once the choses his lover he must comply with the elder man, catering to the demands. Plato see’s that everyone has this desire or want to love. He states that since birth we have always been in a continuous search for the thing that satisfy our needs

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