Plato's Symposium
...but in the end find that love is simply a search for “goodness,” a guide that has allowed me to formulate my personal and discrete definition of love, an epiphany of true beauty. Phaedrus, who proposes the series of eulogies on love to the symposium, opens the dialectic with a speech on one of love’s most auspicious characteristics, the power to evoke humanity’s greatest qualities. Phaedrus argues “it’s only lovers who are willing to die for someone else” (179b) and alludes to Alcestis’ fearless devotion to save her husband and Achilles’ heroic resolve to avenge his comrade Patroclus, demonstrating “the commitment and courage that come from love.” (179d) When a loved one is in danger or their life is at stake, “no one is such a coward that he could not be inspired into courage by love” (179a) to save them. Like Phaedrus, I believe the willingness to sacrifice one’s life for a loved one is the expression of love in its ultimate form – though I hope such an act is reserved for Hollywood movies. Love instills a person with the necessity to display their finest qualities and to excel as much as possible in the eyes of their sweetheart and falling in love in this sense provides “lifelong guidance” (178d) for proper conduct and “a sense of shame at acting disgracefully” (178d). Phaedrus’ speech discusses the profound influence that love possesses on humans, and although he does not attempt to define the meaning of love, he succeeds in shaping the foundations of the dialectic for the others to build upon. Unlike Phaedrus, Pausanias believes it is necessary for the symposium to properly clarify or define love before proceeding with the eulogies and distinguishes two types of love, in particular “common love” and “heavenly love.” (180e) He considers common love inferior to heavenly love because that attraction is directed towards “bodie...