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 recalls his encounter with Diotima, a female philosopher and priestess – which stands out amongst them ... truth. One 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 previo...

• Word Count: 768
• Approx Pages: 3
• 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 ... . Through this process, young boys are supposed to be educated, learning that all bodies are relatively similar and that it is foolish to love only one body in particular. Looking at the different...

• Word Count: 1088
• Approx Pages: 4

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 be the last speech. In this ... 3 beautiful because you are searching for your other half to complete you and in Agathon's speech love is beautiful because it "fills us with togetherness and drains all of our divisiveness away"(197D). In Diotima's speech love is beautiful when "in birth." This passage pertains to Symposium as a whole because it includes many of the main points that t...

• 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 separated into two halves engaged in desperate search for their other half, ... a fantastical story that explained why humans are in constant, desperate search for our lost halves, it still captures the tragedy of human sexuality and love. The beings described within the story are characterized by their narcissistic nature, which results in their eventual de...

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