Within Plato's Symposium, a series of six dialogues regarding the nature of Love are discussed at length. ... By having the text flow in this way, it becomes clear that Plato intended for Diotima and her speech to stand out. ... Additionally, Plato's inclusion of a female character was a perfect way to introduce opposition to the male-dominated absolutism of the Symposium. ... While it is unclear whether Plato assigned any inherent significance to a woman's philosophies, Diotima herself had a very powerful drive to teach others of her knowledge of Love. ... At the conclusion o...

• Word Count: 768
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Immortality of Plato's Love Though Plato died nearly 2500 years ago, the English language still keeps his definition of love in common usage. ... Plato would respond that intellectual association leads to the creation of timeless ideas, and is therefore a greater love than the physical love which creates children. Plato explores and defends his view of love in the Symposium, specifically in the dialogue between Socrates and Diotima (Symposium, 204e ­ 209e). ... The possibility of a woman having a fit mind for wisdom is not even considered by Plato in this argument. ... However, Plato&...

• Word Count: 1318
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

This might explain Plato's why as a young man, Plato's interest were in political leadership. ... Afraid for his life; Plato left Athens and began to travel. ... It wasn't until about 385 B.C that Plato returned to Athens. ... Some of his most famous works include; Symposium and Phaedo which is the death scene of Socrates. Plato died in about 347 B.C at the age of 80 years old. ...

• Word Count: 433
• Approx Pages: 2
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

IN the Symposium, he is defined as a man who can influence others. ... "His Apology and Symposium are similarly disregarded as sources of information on Socrates." ... Plato depicts a Socrates who is nondogmatic, even skeptical. ... The Middle, which includes Republic and Symposium, and the late period, which includes Critias and Laws. ... Socrates would be at his most real in Plato's early works such as the Apology, when his memory and influence would be at its peak in Plato's mind. ...

• Word Count: 1375
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography

These criticisms range from the over-unified state to the perpetual happiness of Plato's farming and merchant class including every notion of Plato's in between. ... If you ask what the progeny is, it is wisdom and virtue in general- Plato, Symposium, 208c While Plato says women are restricted to a physical realm, men are free to explore the metaphysical and psychological realm and are able to posses and utilize intellect. ... Plato, The Laws, 794 Here Plato outlines the necessity of both boys and girls to be educated in the arts of war, so both may be prepared for war. In Repu...

• Word Count: 1570
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

In Plato's Gorgias, Plato thinks it is important to explain what oratory is because he wants to question the ethical value or substance behind oratory's nature and function. ... The primary participants in the dialogue are Socrates, who represents Plato's own views, and Gorgias, Polus, and Callicles, who represent the views of the Sophists. ... Upon researching Plato's views on objective standards of morality, we learn that even in his other works, the Republic and Symposium, Plato argues against moral and aesthetic subjectivism. Rather, Plato approaches morality from th...

• Word Count: 2063
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Plato was, as we know, both pupil of Socrates and teacher of Aristotle. ... Plato's five greatest and most well known writings are, The Apology, Phaedo, Crito, The Republic, and Symposium. ... Symposium is about the function and purpose of love. The Republic is about Plato's ideal form of a republic. ... The war demolished the Academy that plato founded. ...

• Word Count: 1563
• Approx Pages: 6

As we see from Plato's Symposium, even 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. ... The writing serves as a pamphlet that depicts some of the guidelines of love as the philosophers of Plato's time saw them. ... It seemed as though in each of the lectures given, Plato put a message into each one. ... This may have been a valid reasoning during Plato's era because virtue and honor were seen as great characteristics of men. ... Yet in the reasoning that c...

• Word Count: 2004
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: High School

A striking example of the influence of Plato on Augustine is Augustine's critical appropriation of the ancient concept of eros. ... In Plato's Symposium, Socrates shares with us the nature of nature of eros through a speech recounting his dialogue with Diotima. ... Augustine also had very different beliefs about sexual desire than did Plato. Plato's teachings taught that through the hierarchy of eros, sexual desire was used to climb the ladder to wisdom. ... Plato agrees that the attraction to an individual body can be distracting, but he feels this distraction can be resist...

• Word Count: 857
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

In Plato's "Symposium," the very influential speech by Diotima describes an ascent from loving particular kinds of beauty to loving Beauty itself. ... Throughout the Symposium, the audience hears many accounts from various intellectuals that have been invited to a special party. ... Diotima's wisdom throughout the speeches made in Agathon's symposium is one of incredible knowledge, she opened up many eyes and brought to light the impact that Eros can have on the world. Although Diotima was not actually at the symposium herself; being portrayed through Socrates, one has to won...

• Word Count: 1088
• Approx Pages: 4

In Plato's Symposium there are three major speeches given by Aristophanes, Socrates and Alcibiades, where each portrays a different aspect of human sexuality and love. ... This attack on the gods is what eventually led to the condition that humans have constantly been in since, as Plato tells us; The gods didn't see how they could kill them, wiping out the human race with thunderbolts as they"d done with the giants; if they did that the honours and sacrifices the gods received from them would disappear. ... Plato then tells us that the human longing for its other half resulted fro...

• Word Count: 608
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

1 Eros, or love, is the topic for discussion in Plato's Symposium. ... This is ironic because from the beginning of the Symposium it is made explicitly clear that women are not wise enough to know and discuss eros. ... This passage pertains to Symposium as a whole because it includes many of the main points that the other speakers were trying to get at. ... Here Socrates admires Diotima in the same way that everyone in the Symposium admires Socrates. Throughout the Symposium, eros is constantly used in conjunction with homosexuality. ...

• Word Count: 925
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

After his defence, recorded by his students Plato and Xenophon, Socrates was sentenced to death for his crimes; however, many primary source accounts encourage a secondary, insidious reason for why Socrates was really executed. In Plato's Apology, his version of the speech given by his scholar Socrates in defence for himself during his trail, Socrates denied the self-proposed false charges against him and accused the jurors of unfair judgement because of their prejudice and personal grudge against him and his philosophical ideas. ... The opposing views of multiple scholars from dramatical...

• Word Count: 892
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Graduate

In reading Horace's Satires and Epistles and Plato The Symposium, a very ironic discovery can be made. ... He does not put himself on a heavenly level, like Diotima in Plato's Symposium, but guarantees his readers that although he has knowledge of how to live a satisfying life and can administer advice on it; he too struggles against his damning nature. Plato's Symposium is a collection of speeches, made by a group of social degenerates about love. ... You should impregnate their minds with ideas and knowledge; "by far the greatest and most beautiful part of wisdom deals wit...

• Word Count: 1606
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

His life was chronicled through only a few sources- the dialogues of Plato, Xenophon and the plays of Aristophanes. 2. ... Socrates' physical appearance according to Plato's Symposium- Short, stocky, snub nose and bulging eyes. ...

• Word Count: 377
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

Thinking along these lines, we must go all the way back through history to ancient Greece and Plato, who wrote in The Symposium: And the true order of going, or being led by another, to the things of love, is to begin from the beauties of earth and mount upwards for the sake of that other beauty, using these as steps only, and from one going on to two, and from two to all fair forms, and from fair forms to fair practices, and from fair practices to fair notions, until from fair notions he arrives at the notion of absolute beauty, and at last knows what the essence of beauty is (Solomon, 652)...

• Word Count: 1527
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

Throughout history Love has been a topic of conversation. Plato's Symposium provides us with many different views and theories about Love. Socrates and his intellectual partners discuss what Love is and twist it's meaning in every possible way. One of the memorable speeches is the Speech of Aristoph...

• Word Count: 367
• Approx Pages: 1

(Symposium, 37)" Love inspires people to do great things, and is the greatest source of pleasure there is. ... This is why the Symposium is considered one of the great works of philosophy, even though Socrates is the only real philosopher in the group. ... The people in Plato's Symposium are truly great and wise men. ... (Symposium, 20)" The moral value of this sentence is questionable. ... Pausanias does, however, say, "But the love of young boys should be forbidden by law because their future is uncertain (Symposium, 23)." ...

• Word Count: 1657
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School

In "The Apology"," Plato claims that Socrates is the wisest man even if he doesn't believe that he is. Plato claims that, "he is not speaking of Socrates, he is only using my name by the way of illustration, as if he said, O men, is the wisest, who, like Socrates, knows that his wisdom is in truth worth nothing"" (pg. 104, p. 9). This is strength to Plato's argument because he explains why Socrates is going around spreading his knowledge. ... For example on page 7, section 25, Freud claims, "We assume that human instincts are of two kinds: those that converse and unify, which we call...

• Word Count: 794
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

There have been many ideas and theories of what love is, looks like and how its origins have been speculated by many including the respected philosopher Plato. In his work entitled Symposium, Plato attempted to outline the purpose and nature of love, as well as the many facets love can be to one individual. ... (Plato, 2001). Researchers, philosophers, anthropologists, theologians, neurologists, psychologists and even poets have continued in Plato's steps by presenting various thoughts, theories and ideas as to what love is, although it is fair to say that these views have changed with th...

• Word Count: 1701
• Approx Pages: 7
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

In this paper I will discuss Aristophanes" speech on love found in Plato's Symposium. ... He does however touch on a very significant point that none of the other speakers in the Symposium have touched on. ...

• Word Count: 1564
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Comparing Capote's works to that of Plato and Phaedrus, one author states: Baldanza describes their works as "parables on the nature of love", and adds, "They share with Plato's Symposium and Phaedrus in particular that curious tone of purely and absolutely spiritual love which grows out of a diffused and circumambient atmosphere of sexuality that never clearly manifests itself." ...

• Word Count: 2030
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: High School

One of the earliest explanations of homosexuality and homosexual union can be found in a section of Plato's Symposium. In this section Plato write for his friend Aristophanes, following Aristophanes myth about the origin of human beings. ... Plato states that "these are the people that finish out their lives together and still cannot say what it is they want from one another. " While he doesn't say it in so many words, Plato is obviously talking about the union of two people, a marriage. ...

• Word Count: 2929
• Approx Pages: 12
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Timeworn comedy deals almost exhaustively with men, the Symposium both of Plato and Xenophon make it exceedingly evident that when a gentleman entertained friends the only women present were those who had no reputation...

• Word Count: 2025
• Approx Pages: 8

Plato alluded to the acceptance of homosexuality when he described the effectiveness and power of the "pederasty" in Symposium, "If only there were a way to start a city or an army made up of lovers and the boys they love! ... (Kaplan) Plato's statement accepts homosexuality as well as describing the homosexuals as having a quality that builds strong civilizations. ...

• Word Count: 3001
• Approx Pages: 12