Agathon's Symposium: An Analysis

Platonic philosophy has been firmly marked as a subject of ration; it was later considered to be the source of Western rationality. But in his later work, " Symposium ", an important philosophical aesthetics book, Plato placed a dramatic dialogue around the subjects "Love" and “Beauty.” Everyone who was invited by Agathon, the tragedian, had to give a speech in praise of Love (Eros). However, when it was Socrates’ term, he rebutted Agathon’s claim that Love is good and beautiful. At the end of Socrates’ questioning, he concluded that Love is neither beautiful nor good.
After Agathon’s speech, Socrates first praises all the speakers before him and claims that he does not know how to give a eulogy, only how to tell the truth. Being encourage …show more content…
This missing subject can compromise the chain. At the starting point of the chain, Socrates mentioned that either one desires what one does not have or one desires to have the continued presence of what one has. However, in his following argument, he seems to forget about the second type of desiring and lacking. In other words, it is possible that love desires beauty because love is beautiful in the present but also has the desire of its future and continuance presentation. In fact, things can only have and maintain what they have in the present. For example, I have a beautiful dress right this second. I desire this dress does not mean that I do not have this dress in possession; it simply means that I want to continue to have this dress in the future. From this example, one can conclude that all things have a future lacking. Thus, potentially, anything can desire what it has without the implication of lacking it in the present. In the previous speeches made by Agathon and many others, it is an established fact that Love is beautiful. One can conclude that Love is beautiful and the reason Love desires beauty is simply the longing for being beautiful forever. In conclusion, Love is …show more content…
However, that is not a fact that could be proved. People always ignore the fact that Love is not what comes first. Attraction is what comes first. One is usually being attracted to what one is having a little difficulty to obtain. The best things are always those we cannot have. For example, a boy will keep pursuing a girl until he has her. Then he will not cherish her as much as before simply because she has the girl already. If one simply gets what he attracts to, quickly, then he will not develop any love for it. This is where longing enters the stage, leading to Love. However, Love brings the fear of loss along with it. When two people are in love, they will secretly, but constantly, dread about the possibility that the other one may leave. Loss of fear gradually leads the way to jealousy of the others and uncertainty of the relationship. The couple now lives in torture, both toward the other and themselves. Let’s pause a second and go back to the word “beautiful.” It is common knowledge that beauty brings joy, happiness and wonder. Since Love brings jealousy and uncertainty, which are the opposites of happiness and joy. One can only conclude that Love is not beautiful in the present. Since Love is not beautiful in the present, it is not possible for it to maintain the beauty in the