Love for Goodness’ Sake: Plato’s Symposium

Socrates says, In a word, then, lamb is wanting to possess the smashing forever (206B). Naturally, it would be my project to agree with this statement however, love is much more complex than Socrates definition. recognize is the bank to always be happy, and finding goodness is the key to happiness. contribute intercourse brings the good out of our feels to guide our lives. We search for goodness in love, stock-still surrendering to love and desire (eros) is what brings out our goodness. The happiness that love provides encourages the unmarried to be his or her outmatch egotism, which is how we ultimately live our lives around goodness.Platos Symposium teaches this catch-22 in searching for goodness in love, we discover the goodness inside our bear souls. A some consistency faces choices every day with every decision on that point is the option of acting morally or shame experty. Most mess aim to make moral choices, al champion regardless of the decisions people make , every person has an inherent ability to distinguish acting shame climby and morally. Whether this ability is something a person is born with or is developed by education from matchlesss p bents is irrelevant its meaning(a) to notice that individuals are awake of their acts before they love someone.When someone falls in loveor is overcome by desirehe or she becomes acutely aware(p) of his or her actions and usually makes a conscious effort to make good choices. In seeing the goodness of the ones a person desires, he or she is reminded of the importance of portraying ones good qualities. This is the heart of Phaedrus argument, that thither is a certain guidance each person needs for his tout ensemble lifeand nothing im elements this guidanceas well as hit the sack (178D).He continues to argue that the best possible society would be full of buffers and their beloveds because all of its members would be constantly aware of being their best selves in the presence of their loved ones. Phaedrus contends that surrendering to eros brings out an individuals goodness, however he doesnt address whether this goodness exists when a person is living(a) without Love. Aristophanes discusses his belief that people fall in love when they find the their former(a) half who fills them with a sense of completeness. He tates, Its obvious that the soul of every yellowish brown longs for something else his soul cannot say what it is yet he pursues the tang of unity and completeness that love provides (192D). This sense of wholeness comes from finding the goodness within oneself when a person is with his or her matching half. Socrates disagrees with Aristophanes argument because he doesnt know that each persons another(prenominal) half is good. The belief of having a matching half may provide comfort to some, except it implies that each person should only have a desire for one person.It is very common for people to love multiple people through the course of their lives . Aristophanes may not be incorrect in aspect that every soul is searching for its matching half, besides the key part of his argument in this context is that when a person finds someone he or she loves, that person feels a sense of fullness. I view this sense of feeling of fulfillment comes from rediscovering the good within oneself. The argument in the Symposium that c lack emphasizes this point is that of Socrates. He believes that everyone is meaning(a), either physically or mentally.Those who are pregnant physically bear children this is their way of spreading life and goodness into the ball. Those who are have a pregnant soul bear wisdom, creativity and bang into the world. Both forms of pregnancy leave behind a small part of goodness and the process of pregnancy proves that this goodness begins within the individual. A adult female has most of what is required to make a muff within her be before finding a buff. She has healthy organs that make her body function, and she is capable of maintaining her body. She has eggs in her ovaries that are waiting for a lover to fertilize them.When she finds a lover, his sperm combines with her egg and a dishy baby develops. Both the man and the woman have all of the ingredients to create offspring, only when the unity of the lovers is required to complete the process. In the same way, each individual has wisdom within their souls, but its necessary to combine 2 souls to expose the goodness to society. The process of bringing beauty and wisdom into the world through spiritual pregnancy is more abstract than physical pregnancy, but is equally important. In the same way that a physical zest develops between lovers, souls can crave each other.Socrates states that the soul is drawn to other beautiful and developed souls, and these people connect through intellectually elating argumentsthey give birth to new ideas and thoughts. He believes that, when a person makes contact with someone beautiful and appreci ations company with him, he conceives and gives birth to what he has been carrying inside him for ages. And whether they are together or apart, he rings that beauty (209C). Here, Socrates says that the beauty, truth, knowledge, and goodness were all contained within the lover before the relationship was established it is through dialogue that this beauty is exposed. cosmos aware of displaying our good behaviors and trying to impress our loved ones can be a good thing, but sometimes ones heightened sensory faculty of goodness can make him or her feel inferior. When Alcibiades crashes the philosophers dinner, he begins his spoken communication of praise for Socrates, but quickly Alcibiades reveals his overwhelming sense of mediocrity when in Socrates presence. Yes, he makes me feel ashamed, Alcibiades confesses, I know perfectly well that I cant prove hes wrong when he tells me what I should do yet, the moment I leave his side, I go back to my old ways (216B).Alcibiades believes h e will never be good enough for the pious and goodness-filled Socrates. Alcibiades admits that he strives to be his best self in front of Socrates, but he lapses into old habits when they are apart. Alcibiades declares, my whole life has become one constant effort to escape from him and keep away, but when I see him, I feel deeply ashamed, because Im doing nothing about my way of life, although I have already agreed with him that I should (216B). Therefore, Alcibiades is aware that he has the potential to be good, but he only has the strength to be noble when hes with Socrates.The tragedy is that Socrates doesnt want to take Alcibiades as a lover, leave the latter to suffer through life feeling lonely and inadequate. Alcibiades should remember that he has the power to be moral and display his goodness, which could in flip lead him to another lover. All of the philosophers whose ideas Ive discussed above reveal that love brings out the good in each of us, but I believe that the goo d is contained within the individual before exposure to a lover. We test lovers because we crave the admonisher to always be our best selves.We take vainglory in acting morally, and we feel good when others recognize our good behavior. We have desire for someone when we see his or her beauty and goodness, and we hope to be desired for our goodness as well. When two lovers come together, there is a feel of unity because theres an understanding that both people will be noble for each other. People are compelled to brook with a lover for the entirety of their lives because they want to continue to be full of goodness. When we are without a lover, we may feel lonely and can lose touch with our internal goodness.We crave love because we need the constant reminder to be our highest selvesthe self we are most proud of. Because Love makes us extra aware of our goodness both internally and behaviorally, its important to remember that we have the power to be our noblest selves at any time, with or without a lover. Therefore Socrates was right after all love is the desire to hold on to the good in our lives forever, and being with a lover is the best way to constantly be aware of being our best selves.