Plato´s The Symposium and it theme Compared to the French Song La Vie En Rose

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.

By comparing himself to the Greek hero Achilles before the jury in Plato’s Apology, Socrates attempts to portray himself as a hero of equal merit to Achilles and others of similar standing. By selecting the greatest of the Classical Greeks to compare and contrast himself to in his argument, Socrates surreptitiously urges his audience to view him as being of the same caliber as Achilles. This not only authenticates Socrates’ claims, but also exhibits his disconnect from earlier forms of thought. Essentially, Socrates attempts to display himself in the same light as his predecessor Achilles through their shared aspiration to do what they deem to be right in addition to their

In Apology, Plato 's representation of Socrates states "as I thought and believed, to live the life of a philosopher, to examine myself and others". This statement is a response to the scornful remarks of the accusers asking him if he is not ashamed of where his "human wisdom" has gotten him. Socrates states that a "man who is any good" should only consider "whether he is acting like a good or a bad man". It is evident that Socrates views good character as an important trait of a wise person. He goes on to say that all men should take care

For these two articles that we read in Crito and Apology by Plato, we could know Socrates is an enduring person with imagination, because he presents us with a mass of contradictions: Most eloquent men, yet he never wrote a word; ugliest yet most profoundly attractive; ignorant yet wise; wrongfully convicted, yet unwilling to avoid his unjust execution. Behind these conundrums is a contradiction less often explored: Socrates is at once the most Athenian, most local, citizenly, and patriotic of philosophers; and yet the most self-regarding of Athenians. Exploring that contradiction, between ¡§Socrates the loyal Athenian citizen¡¨ and ¡§Socrates the philosophical critic of Athenian society,¡¨ will help

Aristophanes whole attempt at making a response to Socrates is to make another case for his exclusion of why love and beauty after Diotima focuses her whole speech on the love’s point being to seek beauty. Socrates uses the figure of Diotima to poke holes in Aristophanes, argument and focus on his own drive to find the point of

Step 4: Use of Information Research Notes: 1. Who is Socrates? How was his childhood? • Socrates was a Greek philosopher; he was born in around 469 BCE, in Athens, Greece. • Really little is known of Socrates’ life.

Though defeated on this point, he's not yet satisfied with Socrates' argument, and sticks by one of his previously stated views which held that injustice is more profitable than justice. However, he shrinks back and seems no longer able to speak for himself after Socrates refuted his argument on justice. Despite his withdrawal from the argument throughout the rest of the Republic, his early ideas help lead Socrates farther on his search for justice through the construction of a hypothetical just city. In describing the education of the guardians of this city, Socrates discusses the need for a balance between gymnastics and poetry. He relates how too much gymnastics lead the spirited part of someone to be overtightened and hard. "He'll be museless and hate discussion" explains Socrates. This hardness and hate for discussion reminds us of the actions of Thrasymachus at the beginning of the argument defining justice. Thrasymachus becomes an example of a "badly tuned soul" that Socrates goes on to describe.

Plato's metaphor of the divided line is essentially two worlds; the world of opinion (the

Socrates was a wise man that over the time ended up with a bad reputation in the eyes of the society. He claims that “what caused [his] reputation is none other than a certain

At the peak of his fame, Socrates was a very unattractive, old man. Robert Garland describes him: “He had a striking physical appearance, which his contemporaries compared to that of a snub-nosed, bald and ugly Silenus.” He adds, “Beauty is useful in the path to stardom. But so, too, is its opposite.” Socrates was most definitely the opposite of beautiful. Compared to epic heroes like Odysseus, who was tall and

In Plato’s Symposium, each philosopher spent time giving their idea on what love was. Each definition of what love is was related closely to what the speaker was passionate about. Love to them was meant to be something virtuous, wise, and unifying. They felt as though love was achieved when knowledge was gained. Today, love has become a main goal in society by being something everyone wants to have. It has become a need for survival with positive and negative connotations. In ancient times, love was achieved by gaining knowledge and becoming wiser but, today love is gained from an emotional connection either given or received by a person. Although there are some comparisons within the definition of love, from ancient times until now the main

Practically in all his discourses, Plato wrote about the works of Socrates that acted as the main persona in his confabs. In Plato’s laws and Xenophon’s Hiero, a further wise man other than Socrates acted as the leader of the discourse. While having protagonist confabs in Plato’s and Xenophon’s works, Socrates tries to interrogate understanding of the further man on the aspect of morality. Socrates presented himself as a less knowledgeable person in the domain of moral issues to confuse the other person who boasts of being more knowledgeable on the same. Using this ironical approach –known as the Socratic Irony -, Socrates was able to illustrate inconsistency of the other person’s views on morality. Although the early and middle works of Plato are considered as Socratic dialogue, understanding the composition and chronology of Plato’s work is a bit complex since even the ancient sources do not present these works chronologically. Plato’s work basically involved posing questions and answers as a way of stimulating critical thinking. Defender of a particular point of view would be questioned, and then one of the parties would contradict himself in order to confuse his counterpart and in doing so, the defender would be made weak. Socrates discourses revolved around traditions, justice, afterlife and education. In light to this, this paper will unravel Socrates accounts balance Aristophanes’ and Xenophon’s on afterlife, justice and law, education and traditional practices.

The Phaedrus dialogue is one of the masterpieces of philosophical and artistic prose of Plato. The work presents a philosophical debate between Socrates and Phaedrus. Socrates, as expressed by Plato, refutes the false eloquence and proves that the rhetoric should be based on philosophy. In this dialogue, Plato also argues the meaning of true love, the way it is connected with the soul, and how the soul can be incorporated into the frame of art and beauty. Phaedrus covers the most significant aspects of Plato's philosophical teachings about ideas, the mastery of rhetoric, and the practices of love and art.

Plato believes that the contemporary society is mistaken about their interpretations of good and pleasant. Society believes that good is pleasant. Plato portrays this message through the mouth piece of Socrates. The philosopher Polus argues that good is made by the possessor. He says one can achieve good through their actions.

Socrates’ primary counter argument is one of substance verses superficiality. To judge an unjust person as happy and blessed based solely on appearance misses the great turmoil inside such a person. Because we are unable to examine the inner world of the individual, Socrates constructs two cities, one built on justice and the other on injustice, as models for the just and unjust person. To understand the devastating end of the unjust person one, need look no further than the unjust city says Socrates.