Socrates Idea Of Wisdom In Agathon's Symposium

Comparing Socrates' speech on love in the Symposium and what he says about wisdom in Apology, through the perspective of wisdom and ignorance, there is definite contradiction. The reason being that in Symposium, Socrates first implies the idea that people already have knowledge that they do not know they have, and that by question and answer, we can bring out that knowledge. In the Symposium, Socrates' speech on love is a retelling of a story he was told by Diotima. He claimed that love and beauty is only a concept to the ignorant and uneducated people. It is said that through question and answer, people can develop and become aware that love and beauty is a real being instead of an object. Socrates claimed that “[Diotima] [was] the one who

In the Symposium Plato places Socrates in a dialogue with the goddess Diotima. She says two things of interest to this paper about love. Firstly, at 206a that humans when they love long to possess the good and do so for ever, and secondly that at 206b that "To love is to bring forth upon the beautiful, both in body and soul (Hamilton 558)." The first statement makes a claim about what love is, a desire to posses the good, and the second a statement about what love does, bring forth the beautiful. I will now briefly analyze both claims.

In Plato’s Symposium, he constructed a dialogue between peers at a drinking party regarding the art of love. After hearing speeches of others in attendance, Socrates presented the thoughts of his former teacher, Diotima, by recounting the speech she had delivered years ago. Diotima first dissected two manifestations of the phenomenon: acquisitive desire, which is a longing to acquire something of beauty, and procreative desire, which is the longing to reproduce in the presence of beauty, either in body or in soul. She then described the ascent of eros, discussing forms of love in terms of their nobility. This spectrum of eros’ nobility brought forth by Diotima is reflected in and expanded on notions brought up in previous speeches, particularly those by Phaedrus and Pausanias, resulting in a much more complex understanding of love, its results, and what it stems from.

For example one of the helpful way I would apply Socrates Epistemic Humility for whoever is bearing in mind applying to a job. People tend to work at places they are interested in and believe that they have what it take to work at that job. If people apply Socrates wisdom that the knowledge one knows is nothing then they would be open to obtain more knowledge from the job they are hired for. Knowledge can be obtained anywhere at any time and having the ability to tell yourself that you know nothing will give you the will to acquire more of what you believe you know but really do not know. So overall Socrates is right about wisdom because in today society human are arrogant and ignorant believing that they know everything because of their statues and things they have done to believe they are wise. But in reality that person really knows nothing but ongoing the process of achieving new

It can be remembered that his speech described love in several ways. In his speech, he identified love as beautiful, wise, and young, sensitive, as well as the object of desire. Socrates then contradicts Agathon’s description, making suggestions that Agathon and the love he describes is not really love itself but the object of love’s desire. He compares himself to love that is fluid that is evidenced by his grace, a trait that is commonly accepted to belong to Love alone. Agathon also claims that love is fair and should be treated fairly as well.

Later in Book V, Socrates discusses why the rulers of his idealistic civilization should be philosophers. He uses examples to show how one who truly loves something loves not only parts of the whole, but the whole itself. Socrates eventually ends up conveying the difference between someone

Where beauty is the Each stage in the progression of the appreciation of beauty contained a relationship between an individual and a single object such as a person’s beauty or mind. It was during these connections that allowed for a deeper relationship to transpire as the level of exclusivity began to develop allowing the individual to further appreciate beauty. Specifically, the progress towards a higher understanding of beauty through the means of love starts with loving a single beautiful body then it moves to all beautiful bodies. Next, it transitions to beautiful practices, then to the beautiful forms of learning. From there it further transitions to recognizing that there is only beauty itself; thus, completing the process of learning the true qualities of beauty through love (Plato 49). Throughout the entire progression, Socrates’ idea regarding love contains an individual and another object or idea. Through this hierarchy of the progression, it seems to suggest that humans are constantly pursuing these forms of beauty for their particular love, and an exclusive bond forms during each phase as the individual appreciates their current understanding of beauty. Also, humans continuously pursue these forms of beauty in order to maintain their happiness and reach a level of immorality through love. And, as each person progresses

In Plato’s Symposium, Socrates recalls a speech told by priestess Diotima from Mantinea. In this speech, Diotima counters Socrates’s belief that Love is beautiful and good, scolds him, and tells him that just because something is not beautiful does not mean it has to be ugly. In the same way, just because something is not wise does not mean it has to be ignorant, and so on. In other words, Love is not beautiful nor ugly; it is not immortal nor mortal; it is in between. While discussing Love with Agathon and Phaedrus at a party, Socrates recalls Diotima’s speech and retells it. Socrates portrays Diotima as all-knowing of Love, and refers to her idea that one must ascend in Love, first loving one beautiful body and eventually reaching love for Beauty itself. This implies that the ultimate form of Love cannot be reached without having stepped on the first rung of the ladder, and each one before the next.

In Plato’s work Symposium, Phaedrus, Pausania, Eryximachus, Aristophane and Agathon, each of them presents a speech to either praise or definite Love. Phaedrus first points out that Love is the primordial god; Pausanias brings the theme of “virtue” into the discussion and categorizes Love into “good” one or “bad” one; Eryximachus introduces the thought of “moderation’ and thinks that Love governs such fields as medicine and music; Aristophanes draws attention to the origin and purposes

Socrates sees love as something that is in between being beautiful and ugly and believes that love is a search for beauty and wisdom. Much like Diotima, Socrates presses Agathon to have him admit that love is not beautiful as it desires beauty, and one does not desire what one already has therefore it is not beautiful. Socrates view contrasts with that of Aristophanes from the benefits of love to the nature of love, as Socrates sees no benefits in something that is not beautiful. Love is seen as primarily a relational property by Socrates that holds between things rather than a desire or a need for another person. Love is not itself beautiful or good or anything specific as much as it is a relation that holds between the beautiful, the good, and those who

This, I believe, is what Socrates viewed wisdom as in Plato’s Apology. While it can be inferred that Socrates viewed wisdom as humility, knowledge, and self-knowledge through his examinations of the politicians, poets, and craftsmen, this is not Socrates’ complete view of wisdom. The more comprehensive view Socrates held of wisdom lies in his belief

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.

In order to do this, he goes about Athens questioning those he believes to be wiser than him, including politicians, poets, and craftsmen. Upon this questioning, he discovers that even those perceived as the wisest actually know far less than one would expect. Even the craftsmen, who have much practical wisdom in their respective fields, see their success as merely a tribute to their vast knowledge of many subjects. This, Socrates claims, is not true wisdom. Human wisdom can be described as the acknowledgement and acceptance that one does not know everything, nor is one capable of knowing everything. This, however, does not mean that people should sit idly by, never pursuing wisdom, for it is still vital to the attainment of a good life, which should be the ultimate goal of mankind.

Socrates goes on to develop criteria necessary for such knowledge which drives onto the ethics of life, or the proper way on behaving. According to Socrates the criteria is to determine whether something is right or wrong and that one shouldn’t concern themselves with the outcome but whether the act was just or unjust, which brings morality into the picture. Socrates believed that in order for morality to exist depended on whether one had knowledge of such definitions. So in essence, virtue is knowledge, if you know what is right, you will do what is right. The necessity and sufficiency for moral behavior hinged upon knowing a Socratic definition. This in the end depicts to us the difference between a life lived with pleasure or utilitarian goals, a life lived honorably. So in reality to practice philosophy is to practice for dying and death, which is the separation of body and soul. The soul referring to matters of ideas and intellect and body to material matters. Philosophy thus teaches us how to care more for our mind than our body and to move away from body because the body is an obstacle to gaining

In the Symposium on that night, Socrates’ speech is one of the most important of the night as he is clearly a central figure, admired by the other guests. Socrates begins by presenting his argument that if love is nothing, then it is of something, and if it is of something, then it is of something that is desired, and therefore of something that is not already possessed, which is then usually beautiful and good. Human beings begin by loving physical beauty in another person, then progress to love of intellect and from that level to see the connection among people and ultimately, the lover of beauty enjoys a kind of revelation or vision of universal beauty, which we find ourselves in the pursuit of during our own study of Plato’s work. The