Does Plato Offer a Coherent Theory of Love in the Symposium - Coursework Example

PLATO’S THEORY OF LOVE By Location Introduction Plato has become one of the renowned philosophers because of his work titled the “Symposium” which centres on the theme of love. This is to the extend that his name has been used in the term platonic love which emanated from his definition of love. Evidently, Plato was Socrates student who decided to put down the different works of Socrates shortly after his death. The symposium title is a Greek term denoting a drinking party. The piece of work on love was given this name because Socrates was addressing a group of people after they had been drinking at a party. The symposium involved six members who made different speeches concerning love. After listening to all of them, Socrates was keen to discuss his viewpoints concerning love. The aspects brought forward by Socrates are what Plato put down for other generations to become familiar with Socrates philosophy. Evidently, the symposium has been read by many people across the globe because of its central theme. Notably, the views presented in the work can be applied in the modern day in a bid to understand the basic tenets of love. This paper will present evidence that Plato’s argument concerning love is coherent and is an applied theory in the modern day. As highlighted above, Plato’s theory of love emerged from a close synopsis of what the six members in the symposium had highlighted. In the opinion of the first speaker Phaedrus, love denoted the greatest god defined by a remarkable measure of virtue. The second speech was presented by Pausanias, who highlighted that there were two types of love. The two categories are names the common love, which she described as an incomplete and a subordinate form of love which she characterized as vulgar and its main purpose was the sexual act. The second category, which she called the heavenly love, was a love of the higher nature. This kind of love only gave in to the sexual act for a higher purpose which was intelligence (Kerr 1997, n.p). The third speech was given by Eryximachus who highlighted that love that could be defined as good served to promote a measure of moderation as well as order. The fourth speech was presented by Aristophanes, who presented a mythology in a bid to explain how he viewed love. In his view, human beings had once been double of what they are in the modern day. However, their status served as a threat to the gods and the Greek god Zeus served to split them into two. This is why individuals are desperately in search for the other half. The fifth speech was presented by Agathon, who highlighted that love denoted what was wise, beautiful and young. Moreover, it served the purpose of promoting virtues. As Plato highlights in “The Symposium”, Socrates delivered his speech after listening to all the above speeches. In his presentation, he helped the people realize that there was a higher form of love which touched on several aspects and not just the ones they had highlighted (Soble 1989, n.p). Evidently, Plato’s theory on love, which was developed using the above arguments, can be termed as highly coherent because of the rationality and the logic that he used to present his ideas. There are three different aspects that Plato described in the theory that have served as basic tenets of understanding his theory of love. The first basic tenet in Plato’s opinion was that, love was a spirit striving for the perpetual possession of what was considered good. According to Plato, everything that a human being does has the key purpose of attaining some good. All the things desired by human beings usually have a good in them, which motivates individuals to seek them. This only means that, the entire world can claim to be in love since everyone seeks to acquire some good. The reason why Plato used the term perpetual possession is because human beings seek to acquire something and own it forever. Therefore, human beings exert effort as they strive to acquire something good and usually intent to own it forever. However, human beings do not only strive for good, but rather the absolute good (Blackburn 2004, n.p). According to Plato’s view point, this Good was one of the ideas which he had classified as an eternal entity. Notably, Plato highlighted that, each human being, made efforts to acquire something considered as Good and that had the capacity to fulfil the being of that individual. In his other arguments, Plato had highlighted that the entire world conforms to s single order. This means that, there is the highest form of good that all the people in love seek to acquire. This highest form of good is what does not fade, but lasts eternally. Plato was keen to highlight that, the Good that people sought, was evident in all the stages of life. However, it was saddening that many people had not identified that specific good they sought in all their efforts (Sheffield 2006, n.p). The basic aspect that serves to augment the second tenet described above is that love is a desire for immortality. According to Plato, human beings struggled to own what is good forever. Therefore, Plato expounded an idea that Socrates had brought forward highlighting that, if one loved beauty, he or she would “bring forth in beauty”. According to Plato, this placed emphasis on the salient need to recreate something that was considered the Good so that it can last until eternity. This is the reason why love is considered a desire for immortality. This desire is evident in the way human beings indulge in the procreation process (Murdoch 2014, n.p). Through procreation, human beings in love bring forth future generations. This is an expression of the need for perpetuity. Plato explained this by highlighting that, children reassured parents that through them, it was possible to partake an assured future. For an individual to fall in love there must be a specific object of love. This object of love is what Plato described as the Good. He highlighted this is agreement to what Socrates had highlighted that love exhibits a binding nature. For this to be true there must be an object of attraction. It is what Plato refers to as Platonic love, which is an eternal entity that he denotes as a form of beauty. However, when individuals fall in love as he highlights, it occurs in stages as will be highlighted in the third basic tenet (Drew Dalton, Longing for the Other: Levinas and Metaphysical Desire 2011, n.p). The third basic tenet highlighted by Plato in his theory love is the fact that, the path to successful love comprised of different stages. He outlined the stages in confrontation with what Socrates had received from Diotima. Diotima was the one who revealed the secrets concerning love to Socrates. As Socrates highlighted, the initial object of love in any situation was the physical body. However, the ultimate goal was the form of beauty considered as pure and eternal. According to Plato’s interpretation of this, there are five different stages that lead to successful love. The first stage of love involves an attraction towards the outward physical beauty (Soble 1989, n.p). Socrates was keen to highlight that, this level of bodily love was highly immature and an individual who understood the secrets of love needed to move to the upper ranks of love. Plato explains this form of immaturity by highlighting that an individual in this stage is likely to be attracted to multiple people with physical beauty. In this stage, an individual learns to fall in love for physical beauty. However, there is need to seek more after the realization that physical beauty does not amount to the pure form of beauty which is eternal. Therefore, an individual moves to the second stages whereby he or she realizes that, beauty found in the soul is more precious than physical beauty. This means that, an individual may be ugly on the outside, but possess traits considered as beautiful. Therefore, the Good seen in such traits makes the partner fall in love. The third stage of love involves a salient appreciation of both social and moral beauty. It requires a close consideration of the beauty exhibited by institutions (Murdoch 2014, n.p). The fourth level of Platonic involves a rigorous process of acquiring knowledge. This involves a close analysis of science in a bid to understand things that are higher than the body, the soul and the society. These things are considered magnificent and are the ones with the potential of helping human beings recreate what is good. It helps an individual come to the understanding of the supreme knowledge (Kerr 1997, n.p). Plato defines the supreme knowledge as a category of knowledge which focuses on the purest form of beauty. Therefore, the fifth stage of successful love should involve the acquiring of the purest form of beauty. However, Plato did not give details of the final stage. According to Plato, it was impossible for two people bound by platonic love to fall out of love. This is because they would be well aware of the five stages involved and would focus on an advanced exploration together. If individuals fall out of love, it only means that they were seeking the Good that does not qualify to be denoted as the purest form of the Good. However, this philosopher highlighted that it was possible for individuals to have a clear view of their desire as well as its true objective. The coherence in Platos argument can be applied in modern day counselling, despite the numerous criticisms developed against the theory (Murdoch 2014, n.p). Notably, Plato presents ideas that challenge the individual view of love and the stages to achieving successful love. The modern era is defined by numerous divorces and extremely high levels of disappointments in relationships. According to Plato’s theory, it is evident that many people do not let their love project to the five stages that Plato describes. In a bid to place emphasis on the fifth stage, which should be achieving a higher form of good, there are views by many analysts that the definition of the highest form of the Good does not have to conform to the one presented by Plato. On the contrary, an individual should be able to identify personal true needs and expectations which form the object of love. However, many people view love as a form of passion (Soble 1989, n.p). This passion is bound to fade with time if both Good in the body and the soul does not seem sufficient. In real life situations, many people are mistaken to think that their true needs will be satisfied by the sexual adventures in a relationship. However, after the passion fades, these people complain of the highest form of dissatisfaction. According to Plato’s argument, they stagnate on the second stage of love. To improve the chances of realizing their true objectives, they try different partners in a bid to find one with the expected form of the Good. However, Plato argues that, the true needs may not be met irrespective of the partner chosen (Kerr 1997, n.p). Therefore, understanding the coherence in Plato’s argument concerning love, it becomes easier to understand why there are numerous divorce cases and why many people are dissatisfied. Conclusion Plato begins his theory by highlighting that, all individuals are in a dire need for love. Moreover, the fact that every human effort is motivated by some form of love is an argument that Plato uses to define the different objects of love. Through the description of his theory, it becomes evident that many people do not fulfil their needs because they fail to develop strategies of identifying the object of love that matters most. Notably, it is true that human beings may not give each other the highest form of love or good expected and as described by Plato. However, with the view that love should be immortal, it becomes possible to give relationships time to develop into maturity. Therefore, Plato’s theory can be applied when counselling individuals who change partners hoping to find something better. Moreover, it can be applied to counsel young adults who are often dissatisfied with parental protective love. If viewed as an immortal love, parental love is something that young adults can cherish. 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