Socrates Representation Of Love Essay

Socrates as an Exemplar of Love It may seem at first that Plato wrote Symposium merely to praise Love through a sequence of speeches made by the selected male speakers attending the drinking party. After Socrates makes his speech on the truth of love however, it becomes more apparent that Symposium is also a tribute to Socrates and his way of life. Although this is shown gradually and indirectly, Plato eventually makes clear his respect and admiration for Socrates’ way of life. The structure of the book was laid out in a way so that readers can interpret Socrates as a representation of love. All the speeches deliver in Symposium are central to the depiction of Socrates as an embodiment of love. The first few speeches, though insignificant
Diotima’s concept of love is completely different from that of all other speakers. Unlike other speakers, Diotima associates neither positive nor negative traits with love. She simply describes love as a desire to possess and preserve good things eternally. When asked what Love wants, Diotima answers, “Reproduction and birth in beauty” (206E, 53). She further explains her reasoning by saying, “...Reproduction goes on forever; it is what mortals have in place of immortality. A lover must desire immortality along with the good, if what we agreed earlier was right, that Love wants to possess the good forever. It follows that Love must desire immortality” (206E-207A). According to this quote, one cannot possess something forever unless one is immortal. Analogous to the biological reproduction of children, the reproduction, or passing down, of an idea perpetuates the immortality of that idea. Hence, the idea of physical and mental reproduction comes into play. Diotima’s concepts of love thus indirectly build on Pausanias’ ideas of heavenly and commonly love. Commonly love refers to pregnancy in the physical body. More significantly, heavenly love refers to pregnancy in mind, which passes down intellectual