Plato (424-348) is considered to be one of the greatest philosophers in the world he pioneered many philosophical topics and made the first university in the western world. Plato was also the student of Socrates and he has authored around 35 platonic dialogues.
One of them is the symposium which takes place in a party, where they were honoring The host Agathon, as Socrates arrives late to the party. One of the guests Eryximachus picks up on a suggests that each of the people should make a speech to honor the God of loves Eros. One by one each guest take turns reciting speeches about describing love, two of the most notable/ interesting speeches comes from. Aristophanes who makes this epic peech about the mythical story of love which suggests
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Back then homosexuality was viewed in a positive way in ancient Greek culture men were allowed to hold relationships with other men. This was justified using religion as we can see in the symposium. Aristophanes and Arthagon both intellectuals supported equal forms of Love. I am a 20 yr old Bi Bangladeshi living in the States. I have been to both sides of the coin and viewed the societies opinion on love. In Bangladesh it’s common to see men holding hands or openly embracing each other but same sex marriage and behavior is illegal and the defenders of the law cite religious reason to ban homosexuality. In Islam it’s quite a sensitive topic from my experience I have seen moderates saying it’s a sin while liberals claiming it was allowed it’s a really complex but nonetheless. Ottoman empire had the elite in the top and some lower class individuals were allowed to practice homosexuality but then it all changed when oil was discovered as the ottomans started mimicking British culture and some religious customs. On the flipside in the States I have seen my fair share of acceptance and hatred since this country is really diverse. I have seen tragedies the like in Orlando and gay marriage being legalized everywhere. Just like Bangladesh certain people have used religion as way to oppose equal love. I agree with Aristophanes story in The symposium is that us humans often use religions to describe stuff that are different whether it be normal or immoral. In the symposium I have seen Greek society more equal marriage opportunities than most contemporary societies in the world. The united States of recently made gay marriage legal in all states this shows even if we view ourselves as an great nation but we let primitive and outdated religions dictate our
Plato was a student of Socrates and a teacher of Aristotle. Together, these three men are regarded as the founders of Western philosophy. Plato dedicated his life to helping people reach fulfillment. He established the Academy of Athens. He is often commended for allowing his ideas to be open to interpretation. Among Plato’s popular theories:
Biographical information: Plato was one of the earliest ancient Greek philosophers who lived from 427 to 347 B.C. He was a student of Socrates, who was also a prominent Greek philosopher at that time. Socrates had a massive influence on Plato, who called him “the most upright man of that day” (The Seventh Letter). Plato adopted his philosophy and dedicated his studies to formation of a noble character. Born in Athens to a family of aristocrats, Plato attained an exceptional education, most likely taught by notable educators such as Pythagoras and Parmenides.
Symposium is a gathering hosted by Agaton to celebrate his first tragedy award for playwriting. Each of the guests gave a speech about love. The speech dealing with questions about what is love; interpersonal relationships through love; what types of love are worthy of praise; the purpose of love; and others. A series of speech about the love ended by the entry of Alcibiades, known as a wealthy aristocrat of Athens for his good-looking, and political career. He entered the discussion drunkenly supporting by a flute-girl, follow upon his speech about love. His unexpected entrance and speech dramatically changed the mood left from Diotima’s serious dialogue with Socrates about the ideal love. The first five speeches contradicted each other and were reconciled in Diotima’s speech, especially her speech about “Ladder if love” and “love of wisdom ”, which implies the delicate relationship between Alcibiades and Socrates.
According to Aristophanes, love (eros) – the highest form of love that one human being can feel towards another – is the desire of dissected halves, one to another, for restoring the wholeness of the nature’s origin. I will explain what does Aristophanes mean by his metaphor and why do people fall in love.
The entrance of Alcibiades to symposium shifts the dialogue and suggests the reader his speech must be considered separate from the previous speeches. The first five speeches; the speech of Phaedrus, Pausanias, Eryximachus, Aristophanes, and Agathon contradicted each other and were reconciled in Diotima’s speech about love as in between mortal and immortal, in between beauty and ugliness, and in between wisdom and ignorance. To achieve it, one must give birth to true virtue. () However, Alcibiades speech changes the topic of the conversation from praising Eros/love, to praising Socrates. While the topic changed and this speech is separate, Alcibiades’ speech unknowingly to him, illustrates the arguments Diotima made about love by
Plato (428-7 B.C.E - 348-7 B.C.E) was a well-known ancient Greek philosopher, a student of Socartes, teacher of Aristotle, and founder of the Academy. Plato came from one of the wealthiest and most politically involved families in all of Athens. His mother is believed to be related to Solon, the Greek statesman in 6th century B.C.E. His father is related to the kings of Messenia and Athens. After the death of Socrates in 399 B.C.E, Plato began studying mathematics, geometry, geology, astronomy and religion in Egypt, which is where he began his writing. During his travelling period of 399-387 B.C.E he wrote the Apology of Socrates, Protagoras, Euthyphro, Hippias Major and Minor and Ion, in which he writes about Socartes’ teaching
Plato was a philosopher from Classical Greece and an innovator of dialogue and dialect forms which provide some of the earliest existing analysis ' of political questions from a philosophical perspective. Among some of Plato 's most prevalent works is his dialogue the Symposium, which records the conversation of a dinner party at which Socrates (amongst others) is a guest. Those who talk before Socrates share a tendency to celebrate the instinct of sex and regard love (eros) as a god whose goodness and beauty they compete. However, Socrates sets himself apart from this belief in the fundamental value of sexual love and instead recollects Diotima 's theory of love, suggesting that love is neither beautiful nor good because it is the desire to possess what is beautiful, and that one cannot desire that of which is already possessed. The ultimate/primary objective of love as being related to an absolute form of beauty that is held to be identical to what is good is debated throughout the dialogue, and Diotima expands on this description of love as being a pursuit of beauty (by which one can attain the goal of love) that culminates in an understanding of the form of beauty. The purpose of this paper is to consider the speeches presented (i.e. those of Phaedrus, Pausanias, Eryximachus, Aristophanes, and Agathon) in Plato 's Symposium as separate parts that assist in an accounting of the definition and purpose of platonic love.
Greek philosopher Plato, student of Socrates, has been regarded for thousands of years as one of the greatest philosophers; with his work dating back to the fourth century. Since then, his work has been extensively studied and applied to modern day issues in representations and society. Accompanied by Socrates and his most acclaimed student, Aristotle, they have helped pave the way of the modern day structure of Western philosophy. Plato’s simile of the cave is a theory that Plato developed regarding the way that humans perceive things. In his theory, Plato identifies between those who mistake opinion for the truth and those who are omniscient to the real truth.
Overdosing on the drug Love is something that many people do quite often without even knowing it, until they experience the withdrawal symptoms. Book IV of the Aeneid by Virgil focuses mainly on Queen Dido and Aeneas’s love relationship. After Queen Dido falls in love with Aeneas he leaves her in Carthage to go focus on his own duties. Dido doesn't take this very well and the withdrawal symptoms of the love they had are fatal. Love is just as powerful as a drug.
One important contributor to the field of philosophy was Socrates. Socrates was a great
Apollodorus decides to tell his friend about the party through a flashback. There were 8 speeches total, one from Phaedrus, Pausanias, Eryximachus, Aristophanes, Agathon, Socrates, through questioning, Diotima, and Alcibiades, however, only two of the speeches will be thoroughly explained. The speeches overlap with a general topic: love, and what each speaker believes love is. Pausanias’ speech says that there are two types of Love: Common love and Heavenly Love (Puncher, et. all 832).
Our human nature was not what we always thought of it to be, in simpler times two were made as one. We roamed the earth in unity with our other halves without the burden of trying to find them. However, Zeus did not find this to be in his best interest because of how we behaved so he split each being in two. As a result of this split we must now go about our lives in search of our other half. This is the speech that Aristophanes gave in Plato’s Symposium a book composed of various speeches from many different famous Greek people. Aristophanes’ view of love is compelling because it describes our very human nature to find our love, it justifies the reasoning of why there are different sexualities, and it gives an explanation as to why our bodies are the way that they are today.
Homosexuality is not a 20th century situation but has been in history from the age of ancient Rome, Greece, Egypt, and even China. The attitude toward homosexuality always has been a variable, depending on the social, cultural and morality, or even the political development (Barnecka et al., 2005). Back in Greek history the concept of relations between two men was seen as the highest form of love, whereas the Judaic view always was against and frowned upon these relations considering it immoral and illegal. However, when the Roman rule was destroyed and the Christians took over Europe, homosexuality was seen as perverse (Woodward, 1997).
Plato is regarded by many experts as the first writer of political philosophy. He fashioned a distinctive view of human nature, a view that has had a crucial formative influence on all subsequent theories of human nature. Plato pointed out the distinction between a perfect ideal and its imperfect replicas, and gave the name
Plato was a philosopher and educator in ancient Greece. He was one of the most important thinkers and writers in the history of Western culture. Plato was born in Athens into a family that was one of the oldest and most distinguished in the city. His father Ariston died when Plato was only a child. The name Plato was a nickname meaning broad shoulders. Plato's real name was Aristocles. Plato had aspirations of becoming a politician, however these hopes were destroyed when his friend Socrates was sentenced to death in 299 B.C. Extremely hurt Plato left Athens and traveled for several years. In 387 B.C., Plato returned to Athens and founded a school of philosophy and science that became known as the Academy. Topics such as astronomy,