The Symposium Reflective Journal - Term Paper Example

The Issue of Eros in Plato’s Symposium School Plato’s Symposium is the dialogue which issue is dedicated to explanation of the notionof Eros as a special embodiment of love. Interpretations of love are various in the participants’ monologues but the main point is the one Plato expressed in the speech of Socrates. It shows that Eros is more than the concept of love we usually understand by it, as it is a huge metaphysical force, which unites everything in the universe and strives to all-out universal goodness.

The dialogue Symposium mostly consists of several monologues of the participants of the conversation who describe different points of view on what Eros is. Socrates’ speech is one of the latest ones and it is in typical Socrates’ manner – dialogue. Using persuasive arguments Socrates responds to the, previous to his, speech of Agathon asking the man some questions that logically lead them to some crucial conclusions about Eros. Socrates claims, and it sounds really reasonable, that “Eros is love, first of all, of some things, and secondly, of whatever things the need for which is present to him” (Plat. Sym. 200e).

The next following logical arguments that come after this one claim that Eros strives to beauty but it isn’t beautiful itself as it wants only to possess beautiful things. The point seems not really convincible as the concept of love becomes totally vague. The first reason is that if Eros is a kind of love that wants to have beautiful things in its possession and preserve them, then how does it work in real life and where does this Eros exist? What kind of phenomena is this? Retelling his dialogue with some woman Diotima, Socrates comes to the conclusion that it turns out that Eros is ugly as far as it strives to possess beauty, and Socrates argues that ugly thing cannot be good (Ibid. 201c). From this point it is impossible for Eros to be a god.

Diotima solves the dilemma and answers the question of the essence of Eros. She points out the Eros is “a great spirit: for the whole of the spiritual is between divine and mortal” (Sym. 202e). The Diotima’s definition of the essence of Eros shows that it is a special force which is a kind of medium between gods and humans, it is a sort of connection between them which also helps people to connect with gods. The Socrates description of Eros becomes logical in connection with the entire doctrine of world view described in Plato’s dialogues.

Probably, Eros is the force that connects the world of ideas with the material reality and makes everything in this world to move and change.Thus it turns out that, according to Plato (or Socrates), love is not just a simple feeling or some kind of desire that people can feel. Love (perhaps, under the guidance of Eros) is a powerful force that evokes movement in the world and makes people strive to some higher, metaphysical things. This is the only way how the connection force between people and gods can work.

ReferencesPlato. “Symposium”. Perseus Digital Library. Retrieved from: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0174%3Atext%3DSym.%3Asection%3D202e