Plato's Symposium

What is the meaning of love? What does love feel like? How does love come about? No one can truly explain it, yet somehow it's understood. In Plato's Symposium, a dinner party was held with the discussion of love as the main topic. Everyone was required to make a speech, an ode to Love, the spirit. The philosopher, Socrates gave his speech last, claiming that his speech was merely a repetition of what a wise woman named Diotima once told him. The speech was a powerful one, but before the night was over, a drunk Alcibiades entered. He was asked to make a eulogy for Love as well, but instead, talked about the nature of Socrates. The nature of Love and the nature of Socrates turned out to be extremely similar. In the Symposium, Socrates can be seen as the embodiment of Love itself.

The notion of love that was understood at the end of the Symposium came about gradually. It transformed from speaker to speaker over the course of the party, and could be compared to the whole process of understanding love that Socrates tried to explain in his own speech.

Its complexity was attained by taking small steps in a larger direction. Diotima explained to Socrates, that to attain the deepest love, he had to follow a certain order.

Much like stepping up on the "rungs in a ladder"(211c), love's nature started small, with Phaedrus and Pausinas merely stating that there was good love and bad love. This was the first step, starting with "beautiful things"(211c) and making those things "reason for... ascent"(211c) up the proverbial ladder. Next Eryximachus' speech compared love's importance to that of medicine's. He used the "things of this world as rungs in a ladder"(211c). Aristophanes then gives love a comedic approach, breaking up the adulation. Agathon was next, and his speech showed how love affected people's minds. It created great poets, and spawned the practices of "hedonism, luxury, and sensualism"(197d). Agathon was last before Socrates, and the closest to Socrates' view. He was at the final steps of the deepest love, seeing the "beauty of people's activities"(211c) and of "intellectual endeavors"(211c).

Love, the spirit, was said to be the son of "Plenty and Poverty"(203c). One parent a polar opposite of the other, coming together to form the middle path named Love. The spirit Love was full of self-conflict. Socrates claimed that "the usual notion that he's sensitive and attractive [was] quite wrong"(203c). In fact, he was a "vagrant, with tough, dry skin"(203d). Love took after his mother, Poverty, with the trait of a constant need. However, he also had characteristics gained from his father, Plenty. Love enjoyed chasing "things of beauty and value"(203d), and was filled with "courage, impetuosity, and energy"(203d). He had a desire for knowledge, and was resourceful. Magic, herbs, and words were skills at his disposal.

Socrates was not the most sensitive or attractive man. He showed up to the dinner party half way through dinner, hardly caring about his late entrance. He was very blunt when asking questions as well. Just before Agathon's speech, he asked Agathon a series of questions that almost trapped him into looking extremely foolish(194b-e). Socrates liked to chase things of beauty and value as well. He was always found socializing with attractive people, and his greatest desire was knowledge. His mind was bursting with ideas of virtue and wisdom, and it was this wisdom that showed him love.

Socrates had a mind that held "the most important and attractive kind of wisdom by far... self-discipline"(209a). His self-discipline was seen when Agathon described Socrates' attitude while under military service. When food provisions were cut, everyone seemed unable to cope, yet he never complained once. Then when there was plenty of food, he was able to make it last the longest. He could out drink anyone that challenged him, but never seemed to ever be drunk(220a).

Alcibiades told a personal account of his experiences with Socrates when it was his turn to speak. He directed his speech to Socrates, but held the whole audience as well. The first point he made was that Socrates "treat[ed] people brutally"(215b). What he meant by that was not that he was mean towards people, but that he was flattering to the point of sarcasm, while still maintaining honesty in his remarks. He knew just what to say, and used his words like an entrancing lute. Embellishing the great, masking the negatives, creating certainty out of the uncertain, and visa versa. Socrates was told to speak up during this speech if anything being said was untrue, but he didn't. Which can be used to conclude that this account is accurate of Socrates.

Always full of "self-control"(216d), Alcibiades said, Socrates had an outward shell that tended to fall in love with good-looking people, always acting like he is "completely ignorant and has no knowledge at all"(216d). This could seen when he first entered the dinner party and was lightheartedly praised for his vast wisdom. Socrates replied to this compliment with flattering rhetoric, minimizing his own wisdom into something "as untrustworthy as a dream"(175e), and making Agathon feel that his wisdom was "brilliant"(175e) and had "great potential"(175e). Ironically, the only reply Agathon had was, "You do treat people brutally, Socrates!"(175e). This was the brutal language Alcibiades was speaking of.

Socrates was considered a man of great wisdom, and for him to be complimented by Agathon on that wisdom meant it was a point of admiration. When Socrates returned the compliment by making his own seem pale in comparison, it made Agathon feel like an equal. This is a clever move on Socrates' part, as even back in that time, he was famous for his philosophy, and fame can be considered a form of immortality. If the nature of love is as Diotima's speech explains it, a desire for immortality, then Socrates was acting as Love for Agathon. Socrates was feeding Agathon's desire.

The desire for wisdom and for sexual gratification were both similar according to Socrates. They were both a desire for immortality. Through both means one could attain eternal life. In wisdom, one's own ideas could live on forever through it's passing from one generation to the next, being adapted as necessary. When the wisdom was passed on, it's origins would be told, and it's originator would not be forgotten. With sexual desire, it suited the purpose of procreation. People lived on through the endeavors