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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 5 page essay that examines Plato's Symposium, specifically Diatima's speech, and then discusses its premises. No other sources cited.
Page Count:
5 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_khddia.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
are Phaedrus Pausanias, Eryximachus, Aristophanes, Agathon and Socrates. Towards the end of the party, the group is joined by Alcibiades. The theme of the discussion is love. At first,
there is "small talk" about love that is at the lowest physical level, but as the dialogue progresses the level of the discussion rises to encompass the technical, allegorical and,
finally, the spiritual level of love, as well as the mystical. Socrates questions Agathon after he presents his argument. While Agathon argued that love is fixed state to which
can be ascribed certain properties, Socrates maintains that it a rather in a state of flux, a condition of change and process. Whatever is desired, is always what is not
yet obtained. If love can be equated with a longing for beauty, then love cannot either be beauty or possess the quality of beauty. This concept, that love is a
process rather than a fixed state, is intrinsic to Socrates argument. Socrates describes love in terms of a journey by the soul, rising to the limits of mystical perception. Socrates
presents this image by attributing it to the priestess who taught him the mysteries when he was young, Diotima of Mantinea. Attributing his words to Diotima, Socrates describes how
she taught him that the journey of the soul is to go from the immediate experience of the everyday world and ascend into a realm that is beyond time. Socrates
states that, in his youth, he thought like Agathon and he told Diotima that "Love is a mighty god and also fair" (Plato, 2001). However, Diotima showed him that Love
was neither of these things, but rather existed between "fair and foul, good and evil, and not a god at all" (Plato, 2001). However, "Love desires the beautiful
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