flickr photo credits: (1) cogdogblog (2) Serenae (3) cogdogblog (4) bionicteaching (5) krutscjo
Five Card Story: Plato - True Love is Admiration
a Five Card Flickr story by BSIT101A- Viernes, Jon Levi created Sep 23 2020, 11:53:46 pm. Create a new one!
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There was a story in The Symposium written by Plato himself and the story starts with a dinner party.The characters gathered to share food and drink and talk about important things. At the start of the dinner party, the host announces he wants one of each guests to make a speech on what they think on love. After everyone has spoken and some are quite drunk, Socrates tells us that most of us start to learn about love in a very immediate and physical way by being powerfully attracted to one's particular person's face and body. This is what we now called romantic sexual love. For Socrates the love of one beautiful person isn't and should never be the whole story it's an invitation to step on a ladder that if we follow up when some with thoughtfulness and dignity will lead us to an appreciation of bigger things like wisdom truth morality and goodness.
What's interesting is that Plato doesn't want to censor our interest in lust or sex? He doesn't [think] it evil or degenerate he accepts it But sees as a starting point however Plato doesn't want us to stay stuck on that run he invites us on a journey So we start with the love of one specific beautiful person? And then we move on past that one-off case to a love of the beauty of people in general And then we move up yet another run from a physical to an intellectual beauty the kind of beauty you might find in a work Philosophy or the laws of a city when you've become skilled at perceiving this sort of beauty. You're able for example to appreciate the appeal of a beautiful mind even in an ugly body Eventually the true student of love is able to love what Plato calls The Former Beauty itself which is synonymous with wisdom and goodness. This all helps to explain why sometimes the sight of beautiful person might move us for Plato This is because we ensure in them something beyond their appearance.
The beauty of the mind is linked but superior to that of the body you might start lusting after a beautiful body But the argument goes the idea is that you may end up with a love of philosophy and truth.
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