Love can make people do crazy things. There is scientific evidence that proves love creates chemical changes in our brains. Love is a powerful force - one that can inspire greatness and one that can inspire madness. It is one of the strongest emotions we are capable of feeling. Erotic love is described as a sexual yearning, love, or intimacy, or the sum of all instincts for self-preservation. It is the spiritual force that helps us achieve transcendence within the deepest of human bonds. However, erotic love can affect us like a chemical addiction, causing obsession, intense euphoria, and reckless behaviors. The purpose of this essay is to explore the concept erotic love, according to Plato in the Republic and further prove that erotic love is a tyrant in the sense described by Plato.
Plato’s concept of philosophy seeks to clarify the concept of knowledge. The primary aim of the Republic is to set forth the parameters and defend the concept of a good
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She attacked the woman with pepper spray in a fit of jealous rage. John Wayne Bobbitt lost his penis after he forced himself on his wife. Beloved Tennessee Titans Quarterback Steve McNair was shot to death by his girlfriend after her discovery of McNair’s mistress. Unfortunately the extreme examples of erotic love as a tyrant are plentiful. It should be noted that in each case, there are varying degrees of obsession and madness.
While the cases of Susan Smith and Diane Downs certainly exemplify the concept of erotic love as a tyrant, they are extreme, and it is my opinion that mental illness plays a substantial role. More moderate examples of erotic love as a tyrant would include a wife abandoning her family, rather than killing, to be with her lover or a sex addict spending his life savings on prostitutes. We become careless with our choices and reckless in our behaviors in order to fill that insatiable
Love is an addiction that can drive individuals to do impulsive actions such as murder and theft. In William Shakespeare’s tragedy, “Romeo & Juliet”, Friar Lawrence, Fate, and Romeo are most responsible for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet, demonstrating that individuals who make impulsive and quick decisions are destined to have bad fate.
‘Obsessive love has the capacity to drive a person to insanity, leading to irrational behaviour, alienation and despair’
Plato is often criticized for preaching the gospel of me first. The claim is that his understanding of love is essentially egoistic, and this is seen as troublesome for the obvious ethical reasons. But there may be an even more troubling issue with Plato's understanding of love. In this paper I will attempt to argue that for Plato, love is in a sense impossible; that it can only ever be a desire for something out of one's grasp. The stakes are high but perhaps there is a way to understand this problem in a way that seems a little less damning. To do this I will analyze arguments from the Lysis and the Symposium, first questioning even the possibility of love and then attempt to show that love is in fact possible, all though in weaker
In calling love “a serious mental disease,” Plato inspired centuries of authors, doctors, and philosophers. Unlike romantic comedy movies and the Top 40 pop songs chart, which idolize love, literature frequently portrays it as a sickness. Both love and mental illness affect brain chemistry, mood, and behavior. In pieces such as Euripides’ Medea, symptoms of love range from mental illness-like ailments to physical manifestations such as a vanishing appetite, concentration, and apparent sanity. In Longus’ work, love is described as having similar traits. Throughout the story of Daphnis and Chloe’s pastoral romance, love drives both of them mad with longing. Love amplifies their innocent feelings for each other, resulting in a disorienting combination of depression and mania. The affliction goes deeper; their total devotion to each other and pastoral
In many stories, love is presented as the ultimate solution for everything. It brings happiness from despair and hope from destruction. But in reality, love tricks one’s mind to make reckless decisions. According to William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, making decisions based on one’s emotions can lead to pure destruction. This is evident through the words and actions of Romeo, Juliet, and Friar Lawrence.
Who’d be such a fool…Love is a sickness. If I get angry at my husband for having caught it, I’m utterly mad. She’s done nothing to be ashamed of or harmful to me. I can’t be jealous” (Women of Trachis ll.441-449).
From the time that the streetcar first rattles through town, it is clear that the theme of desire is a prominent feature in A Streetcar Named Desire. The themes of lust and sexuality are present mainly in three major characters: Stanley, Stella, and Blanche. Blanche’s interactions with men and her views of herself revolve around her value as a sexual object; while Stella allows Stanley’s violence and animalistic nature because of their sex life.
Plato, in addition to being a philosopher, wrestled at the Olympic level, is one of the classical Greek authors, mathematicians and the founder of The Academy, the first higher learning institute in the west. In short, Plato is one of the great thinkers in history and his contributions to philosophy, ethics and politics are many and varied. One of Plato’s main philosophical ideas is based on the idea that the world
A tragic hero in literature is a type of character who has fallen from grace, where the downfall suggests feelings of misfortune and distress among the audience. The tragic flaw of the hero leads to their demise or downfall that in turn brings a tragic end. Aristotle defines a tragic hero as “a person who must evoke a sense of pity and fear in the audience. He is considered a man of misfortune that comes to him through error of judgment.” The characteristics of a tragic hero described by Aristotle are hamartia, hubris, peripeteia, anagnorisis, nemesis and catharsis which allows the audience to have a catharsis of arousing feelings.
The emotion of lust causes one to do rash decisions that lead to dangerous outcomes. For instance,
The idealistic views of Socrates cannot be clearer than what they are on the most famous of Plato’s books, the Republic. The Republic is said to be the most influential book in western history after the Bible and has four themes to it: Justice
Thesis statement: The combination of vanity and rage is the catalyst to tragedy in modern relationships.
In Tennessee Williams play “A Streetcar Named Desire” madness continues to get progressively worse in the lives of the main characters Stanly, Stella, and Blanche. Because of low self esteem and her delusional thought process Blanche is most affected by the madness. Blanche’s delusional life style leads her to compulsively lie, live a promiscuous life style, and alcoholism. Blanche tries constantly to deal with her own madness, but her delusional mental state is constantly effect by the people around her. Although she causes most of the problems in her life some of her madness is justifiable. By the end of the play Blanche can no longer fight off the madness and is sent to an insane asylum. Even though most of the madness that occurs
Greek philosopher, Plato, is considered to be one of the most influential people in Western Philosophy. The fact that he was a student of Socrates and a teacher of Aristotle leaves no questions about his competence. One of his fundamental works is the “Republic”. Even though it was written in 380 BC, Plato’s and Socrates’s thoughts are still relevant in twenty first century. This paper will evaluate the quote from the “Republic” and provide a summary of a quote; provide a context from the text for the quote; and finally, it will include my own thoughts on the quote and the Socrates’s argument as a whole.
In order to find human fulfillment, one must find God of Jesus Christ as well. Erotic loving is our desire for this fulfillment, which can be seen through eros. Human nature can be simply defined