Ideals Of Love In Plato

’s Symposium Essay, Research Paper

Ideals of Love in Plato’s Symposium

As much as our society has become involved in the advancement of feminism and the equality of the sexes, there is one fact that neither gender can ignore; none can survive without the other. Love and the want of a soul mate keeps each member of man and womankind in the constant search of the perfect person with whom to become one. Yet if this bond is a necessity of the human race then why has the meaning, purpose and pursuit of it eluded us for so many generations. There has yet to be a one universal explanation of love and there has yet to be one who understands its powers fully. As we see from Plato’s Symposium, even to the wisest of men, in a time when the search for knowledge was seen as the pathway to enlightenment, love was still a concept that was not understood and unknown. Though many of their guidelines and characteristics of love are wise, some may not apply to modern society.

Plato’s Symposium serves as a pamphlet that depicts some of the guidelines of love as the philosophers of Plato’s time saw them. The intervention of the Gods in the speeches of the philosophers can be interpreted to mean the different aspects of love and their affects on people. It seemed as though in each of the lectures given, Plato put a message into each one. Each man brought up valid guidelines for dealing with love and each should be concentrated on.

The speeches started with Phaedrus, who began to state many of the powers of love. He spoke about the honor between one and their beloved and how it was a great virtue in a relationship. The point that Phaedrus made was that a man of any nature would rather suffer humiliation in front of a great mass of people or all of mankind itself than to suffer the loss of respect or the loss of dignity in front of their lover. This point is definitely true, yet Phaedrus failed to make a definite cause as to why this was prevalent. It may pertain to modern society that to suffer indignation in front of a lover as seen by the male would be to suffer the loss of one’s masculinity and the inability to protect their lover, whereas for the female it may be the fear of inferiority that keeps the strive towards honor a constant venture in the relationship. In any case it seems that the main reason Phaedrus’s point is valid is because in one of the driving forces in a relationship is the fear of inferiority, fear of humiliation, and fear that they may lose the other person’s respect.

Phaedrus soon builds on this point by stating that a true test of one’s love for their mate is the value of their life. Comparisons between the fates of Achilles and Orpheus are brought up to emphasize his point. As we learn from the legend of Achilles, a man was rewarded for the value he put on his friends life. Achilles sacrificed his own life in an attempt to obtain revenge for his friend. For this act Achilles was rewarded and seen as a hero. Yet on the opposite side of the spectrum we learn of Orpheus who was punished for his selfishness in that he would sooner have his loved one die than threaten his own existence. Because of this, Orpheus was punished. These examples help Phaedrus to show how the bonds of love can make a man dare to die for another.

Later on in the text we find a less dignified motive behind the sacrifice of one’s self for another from Diotima, the woman who teaches Socrates the meaning of love. We are once again faced with the idea of respect as one of the driving forces in love. Diotima proposes that the main motive behind the sacrifice may be that it is a way to gain immortality. By dying for another they would be considered a hero. This may have been a valid reasoning during Plato’s era because virtue and honor were seen as great characteristics of men. People were judged daily on these credentials and thus it is important in that era. Yet today our values of honor have changed. Honor is still a superior quality, yet the degree to which someone will go to gain the respect of another seems to be more relative to what the relation is between them and the person to be impressed. We are generally more concerned with gaining the respect of those who have an actual relation to us (Father, friend, acquaintance, etc.) than to the average stranger. Therefore I believe that this idea of sacrifice in the name of honor seems an invalid argument

today.

Soon Phaedrus concludes his oration and Pausanias steps up to deliver another set of guidelines for love. Pausanias believes that honorable and noble love should only apply to that of the good and that the opposite would apply to love that concerned itself with evil. He believes that love should be done in an honorable fashion and that a person of noble love would not be compensated in any way other that virtue or knowledge from their beloved. To this he adds that evil love is that of the body and not the soul. Evil love is one that concerns the love of money, wealth or power. Following these guidelines, Pausanias makes the conclusion that a dishonorable act would be to lie about one’s status and intentions to obtain love. If he is rejected for what he truly is than he is disgraced for lying about it, yet if he is lying about his knowledge or virtue in attempt to gain more virtue or knowledge than he is noble for the effort. This double standard seems to also concern itself with a value o