Introduction
Socrates and Agathon were in deep dialogue trying to define love. Ultimately, they agreed that love must have an object and that the object must be in short supply and beautiful, or amusing. In their dialogue, they asserted that love desires and is always in want of beautiful and praiseworthy things; for it triumphs in happiness and wanes in sadness.
In their view, love does not desire emptiness or ugly things because it has to adore something or beautiful things. Therefore, Socrates presumed that love is a god of beautiful and marvelous things only. However, Diotima disputed this view because gods own both beautiful and ugly things. According to Rouse, Diotima views love as one of the spirits that mediate between human beings and gods, and mortal and immortal things (98).
Diotima argues that love is the offspring of gods of Plenty and Poverty and that is why he (love) desires beautiful things for his father is Plenty, and he dwells in want because his mother is Poverty. Therefore, Diotima views love as a continuum of beautiful and ugly things that human beings desire to achieve and attain happiness.
Love of Beautiful Things
Since love is always in want and seeks to achieve beautiful things, it has compelled human beings to strive for beautiful things. Human beings struggle to achieve beautiful things that they lack in life, and in so doing they obtain happiness. Hence, human beings are in love with beautiful and smashing things for they need happiness.
It can be conclusive to say that, all human beings are lovers of beautiful and praiseworthy things, but human needs and means of achieving these things vary from one lover to another. Diotima asserts that human beings always desire to have beautiful and pleasurable things, and this constitutes love (Rouse 101). Human beings are willing to sacrifice themselves to obtain their desires, since love is always wanting and pursing nifty things.
Diotima adds that one tends to view own property as valued while views another’s property as worthless because his/her love seeks fair and beautiful things only. Viewing love to have a lack of healthy and beautiful things is contrary to the common view that love is generous. In the perspective of common view, Diotima’s view begs a question that, how can love be generous yet wanting at the same time.
Given that love pursues courteous and beautiful things, a human being use various approaches to satisfy his/her unique needs that love compels him/her to obtain in life, for it is always lacking. Since love seeks to obtain decent and beautiful things, immortality is one of the things.
Diotima argues that, the process of pursuing and expressing love is divine as human beings are pregnant in body and soul, yearning to immortalize themselves through procreation. Women are pregnant in the body, for they desire to immortalize their existence and live happily. Likewise, human beings can also be pregnant in soul because they are yearning to bear wisdom, virtues and ethics that build a better society, which bestows happiness to all.
Procreation of human desires provides the means of achieving immortality and happiness in life. Diotima argues that love occurs when a human being is pregnant and desires to bear beautiful things that are not only immortal, but also wise and virtuous (Rouse 104). It implies that love is assurance of immortality and happy live through procreation of body and societal values. Thus, love is not instantaneous feelings but assurance of the future and better life that is full of happiness.
Mysteries of Love
Despite the fact that love seeks beautiful things only, all bodies have their inherent beauty that depends on different perceptions of lovers. Beauty in one body relates with beauty in other bodies because all are objects of love. Diotima advices that human beings need to pursue beauty knowing that beauty in all bodies is similar, for it is sheer folly not to believe so (Rouse 105).
Thus, if one needs to appreciate beauty, one should realize that beauty exists in all bodies and that there is no single body that is beautiful, making it a mystery. Diotima further advices that, unseen beauty of the soul is more salient and precious than physical beauty of a body, which is particularly deceptive. Beauty of the soul is precious because it begets wisdom and virtues that are critical in loving and caring others.
In her view of mature love, Diotima argues that one needs to grasp the essence of love, as it is knowledge that recognizes and contemplates about world of beauty, and ultimately give rise to wisdom. Thus, Diotima views love as one of the qualities of the soul that enables human beings to desire wisdom and values, unlike common view of beauty that concentrates only on physical attributes.
The best approach of pursuing desires of love is to begin from one body, then to many bodies and ultimately to knowledge and wisdom for one to attain perfection of beauty and love. The reason why love does not grow is that humans base their desires on physical attribute of bodies and neglect beauty of the soul.
According to Rouse, Diotima argues that human flesh and colors have defiled and adulterated perception of beauty because human beings hardly consider beauty of the soul (107). Desire of physical attributes of a body is not only deceptive but a sign of immature love that lacks wisdom and values.
In this view, Diotima perceives that physical attributes of a body obscure and obstruct real attributes of beauty that lies in the soul. Wisdom and values are indispensable elements of the soul that guide human beings in pursuing their desires according to passion imbued by the love. Thus, human beings need to focus on beauty of the soul since they derive considerable benefits such as wisdom, virtues, ethics and other values that are essential for personal development, unlike the body that hardly has any benefits except sight.
Critical Analysis
I agree with Diotima’s view that love always desires pleasurable and beautiful things that make human beings achieve their happiness due to the satisfaction of their needs.
Love compels people to pursue different interests with a common objective of attaining excellence and becoming happy in life. Since love is always in want of finest and beautiful things, it means that love would cease to exist if human needs become satisfied. In nature, expression of love is evident in instances where there is a need and plenty, for instance, when the rich express love to the poor by helping them.
Moreover, given that human needs are infinite, the need to immortalize their existence and values are also expression of love. Immortality and societal values are courteous and beautiful desires that human beings struggle to achieve. I also agree with Diotima’s view that beauty of the soul is more powerful as compared to the beauty of the body. The beauty is soul is paramount because from it springs out wisdom, virtues and ethics that are higher values in the society.
If human beings were to accept Diotima’s view of love, society could be full of wisdom and societal values that uphold humanity. Diotima’s argument that human beings are pregnant in body and soul has deep implication as it means that everyone is full of love and ready to pursue its desires using all means possible. Desire of healthy and beautiful things that are inherent in love could be applicable in a positive manner if humanity concentrated on beauty of the soul rather than the physical body, which is deceptive.
Moreover, human beings need to know that everything is beautiful and that there is no single beautiful thing in the world, thus for one to obtain unwavering love, there must be wisdom and knowledge that emanates from the soul. Therefore, Diotima’s arguments are honorable for they enlighten humanity that even though love seeks reliable and beautiful things, it must focus on unseen attributes of the soul.
Conclusion
Love desires pleasurable and beautiful things because it is always deficient. Love that human beings have for things has prompted them to utilize all means at their disposal to fulfill their desires. However, Diotima cautions that all things are trustworthy and beautiful in their own right, and therefore, no one should compel things that are not trustworthy or beautiful to look crooked or ugly.
Diotima asserts that unseen beauty of the soul is more powerful than mere physical attributes of a body. Thus, attributes of the soul such as wisdom, virtues and ethics should form the basis of moral and beautiful things that love desires.
Work Cited
Rouse, John. Great Dialogues of Plato. New York: The New American Library, 1956.