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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A paper which looks at the different perspectives of love which are given in the course of the discussion in Plato's Symposium, and the conclusions regarding love and philosophy which are drawn by Diotima. Bibliography lists 1 source.
Page Count:
3 pages (~225 words per page)
File: JL5_JLsympo.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
because there are many different views of the nature of love put forward by the different characters. The student could, therefore, begin by noting that Plato does not immediately offer
a dogmatic single definition of love, but allows his characters to explore the various ways in which it is perceived and experienced by human beings. Obviously, the word itself can
be used in a number of ways which have different meanings and implications - ones love for ones family is not the same as for ones spouse, which again is
not the same as a love of a particular food, or an abstract concept such as learning.
The dialogue which takes place between Platos characters looks at these various kinds of love, both the physical and the spiritual, and eventually is drawn to a
conclusion by Diotima, who takes all these divergent opinions and ideas and puts them together as a single, unified concept. The form and structure of the Symposium echoes this idea
of taking a rather messy, amorphous group of theories and gradually refining them into something clear and definitive: the student could point out that right at the beginning, Plato notes
that the story being told is one that has been re-told so often that it is little more than hearsay, and it is from this "story of a story of
a story" that Diotima eventually extracts the true essence of meaning. However,
before Diotima appears, the other characters have put forward their own perceptions of love, all of which are different. Phaedrus sees love as a powerful god, Pausanias elaborates on this
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