Plato s Symposium, Sequential Speeches Praise The God Of...

In Plato’s Symposium, sequential speeches praise the god of Love, but they stray from truth until Diotima’s speech provides a permanent form in which love â€Å"neither waxes nor wanes† (Sym. 211A). Through the speeches, love shifts from identifying with the concrete to the abstract, but still ultimately advances goals of present: Phaedrus sees love as helping â€Å"men gain virtue,† Aristophanes as only a â€Å"promise† to restore humans to their â€Å"original nature† and Pausanias and Eryximachus have to use two changing notions of love (Sym. 180B, 193D). In contrast, Diotima relates love as the closest humans can come to immorality, a future goal motivating us to seek completeness and an uninhibited timelessness. She uses this shift to explain love’s†¦show more content†¦211A). Diotima continues to rise towards abstract concepts as she attempts to explain love’s purpose. This contrasts both Phaedrus’ and Aristophanes’ descriptions of love. She broadly states that â€Å"a lover does not seek the half or whole† unless it is â€Å"good† because people will even amputate, or separate, part of their own body if diseased (Sym. 205E). Aristophanes argues â€Å"love is the name for our pursuit of wholeness† but Diotima explains this cannot be true if the other half is bad, even if it seems to bring wholeness, such as bodies with a temporary veneer of beauty (Sym. 192E). So, love must be explained by separating it to an upwards trajectory, rising towards the concept of good. Otherwise love is only an impermanent â€Å"promise† (Sym. 193D). Therefore, Aristophanes’ lack of separation from the concrete cause love to come from incompleteness and a fallen condition (Dutton Lecture). Likewise, Phaedrus’ speech lacks a removal from the present and therefore fails to explain love’s effects, as seen in hi s Achilles and Patroclus example. To Phaedrus, Achilles still dying after Patroclus passes is love, for â€Å"no one will die for you but a lover† (Sym. 179B). But, Diotima claims this love is unhealthy as it fails to represent the abstract notion of beauty. Since beauty is something to be indirectly experienced, it is unmeasurable and instead â€Å"preserves†