Within Plato's Symposium, a series of six dialogues regarding the nature of Love are discussed at length. However, it is the very last dialogue – in which Socrates ... aspect that made the interaction with Diotima particularly profound is that it challenged the assumptions which were previously unquestioned by the men who came before her in the Symposium; that Love is a god, which pursues the often-imbalanced relationship between two lovers. This questioning strips the previously unchallenged arguments down to their bare bones ... oracle of Apollo at Delphi, and Dione, oracle of Zeus at Ep...

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

... 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). Plato first defines love by examining the lover, then uses this definition to build an abstract ... to refine this broad definition which would include as lovers those who try to attain the good by any means. The purview of love, in Plato as in common language, is restricted "to those whose enthusiasm is directed at one specific type who are described by the t...

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

... Plato's "Symposium," the very influential speech by Diotima describes an ascent from loving particular kinds of beauty to loving Beauty itself. Diotima proves to be incredibly intelligent in the points she makes through her description of this ascent. Ultimately, it can be deduced that by being a lover of knowledge, one can in turn be a lover and seer of true Beauty. Throughout the Symposium ... realization of truth and that truth progressing into ultimate beauty. Finally, one can now understand the relationship between wisdom, truth and beauty. Diotima's wisdom throughout the speeches ...

• Word Count: 1088
• Approx Pages: 4

... group. The ideas these men put forward in describing the nature of something as powerful yet intangible as love are wonderful. The people in Plato's Symposium are truly great and wise men. They each have their particular viewpoints, based on their characters and professions. The physician and healer, Eryximachus, ... I know not any greater blessing to a young man who is beginning life than a virtuous lover, or to the lover, than a beloved youth. (Symposium, 20)" The moral value of this sentence is questionable. It basically condones, even promotes, homosexuality and the abuse of children...

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

1 Eros, or love, is the topic for discussion in Plato's Symposium. In a series of speeches, men debate the superlative meaning of eros the entire night. Socrates concludes the night by giving what is thought to ... , with a woman (Diotima), in which Diotima, not Socrates, gives meaning to the word and concept of eros. 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 is the first speech that the opinion of a woman is taken into ... it "fills us with togetherness and drains all of our divisiven...

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

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. Aristophanes" speech is a fantastic representation of humans that were ... heaven to attack the gods, really refers to them (190b). 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 ... of them into two...

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