Date sent:        Sat, 27 Apr 1996 14:14:46 -0700

     Throughout human existence, the subject of love has been of great fascination to 
many.  Questions such as : "What is love?" and "What is the work of love?" are some of great
questions of the universe that has transcended time; yet with no absolute answers.  There is
perhaps no correct answers to the phenomena of love.  It exists in many strata.  It is
perpetually subject to debate, for we all are experts of love in our own rights.  In the
symposium, Plato gave accounts of speeches from different speakers.  Yet the focus of this
essay is on Aristophanes and Socrates.  Their explanations of love and critical comments to
will be answered to these questions: 1) What is love? 2) How do lovers select their
beloveds? and 3) What is the work of love? 

What is love? 
      In his speech, Aristophanes engages in the discussion of love, encompassing human
nature as whole rather than individualistic aspects.   According to a myth, we were
originally created as a single being, united with our beloved.  As pairs, we were quite
powerful and chaotic, such that the god had to split us into two.  Thereafter, life became a
pursuit, a pursuit for the other half, a "pursuit for wholeness, to be complete."  And this
is what Aristophanes defines as love.  He believes that love is innate: " love is born into
every human being"(191 D).  He is expressing that the phenomenon of love is as natural and
inherent to us as breathing itself.  Like other amenities of life, Love fulfills us.  "To be
in love is to see the other individual as a special complement to one's existence." 
     Socrates, on the other hand, defines love as the desire to possess good and beautiful
entities, which he presently lacks.  By a dialectical method, questioning Agathon, he
manifests that love cannot presently possess the object of affection.  Even when he desires
what he has, what he really desire is "the preservation of what he now has in time to come,
so that he will have it then."   It follows then, that he wants, rather than has the good. 
Thus, Love itself is not beautiful.  This however, does not imply that Love is ugly or evil.
Rather, Love is in between;  just as there is something between wisdom and ignorance- the
right opinion.  He is in between mortal and immortal.  "He is a great spirit.  Everything
spiritual is between god and mortal" (202 E).   Thus, Love is an intermediate spirit who
interprets between gods and men. 
     Although there seems to be great disparity between the two, Aristophanes' and 
Socrates' speeches actually merge in their paths. Is it not human inclination to desire good
and beauty?  Is it not then, that to have good and beauty is to embrace it body and soul and
never wanting to depart it?  Thus, the desire to unite with the other half is analogous, if
not the same to the desire to possess good and beauty, but in a broader scope. 
Aristophanes' and Socrates' explanations of love greatly mirror the nature of our existence
today.  Love is the knot  that binds two people together.  Love is having possession of 
freedom, which lies, perhaps, in the highest scale of goodness. The Americans are notorious
for their freedom.  They have it now.  And it is certain that they want to always possess
it. 

How do lovers select their beloveds?  

     The subjects and objects in Aristophanes' schema of  love is confined solely to human 
beings.  The question is then, "how do lovers select their beloveds?"  According to
Aristophanes, they choose their original other half.  Since everybody is a "matching half of
a human whole" (191D), lovers tend to select what is like themselves.  If a man was
originally of the double sort, he will seek a woman to complete him.   If he was split from
a male, he will be male-oriented; their choice depends on their original orientation.  In
essence, Aristophanes believes that there is someone for everyone and that the match will
fit like that of  a substrate and enzyme. 
     In Socrates' scala amoris, the object of desire, the beloved, is generalized into the
categories of goodness or beauty.  A man select a beloved that which ultimately brings him
happiness. Thus, the lover can love men, animals, life, wisdom, or anything which has the
predominant characteristic of being good or beautiful. However, like a religion, he must be
pious, he must dedicate himself only to that beloved; "It's only when people are devoted
exclusively to a special kind of love that we use these words, 'love,' and 'in love' and
'lovers'(205 D). 
     Aristophanes' discussion of lovers and their beloveds is orchestrated by his myth. 
However, the myth is only an analogy representing his adamant belief that human beings are
incomplete without their beloveds.  Lovers complement each other in many ways.  An
idealistic person will compensate for the realist, a romantic complements a stoic, and same
for an optimist and a pessimist.  Thus, lovers provide each other balance in life, which
often means one thing..... happiness! 
     The beloveds in Socrates' speech are symbolic nature of good and beauty.  The lovers
are those who desire possession of  them.  If this  is so, then every human being is a
lover; everyone of us is Love.  For, we all know what it is to desire good and beauty. 
Nevertheless, Socrates installs boundaries and limitations when he says that people must
devote themselves exclusively to the beloveds; only then are they 'in love' and are they
considered  'lovers.'  The love Socrates speaks of is almost absolute and unconditional.  A
revolutionist fighting for a cause would be considered a lover; the cause in which he
believes to be good is his beloved. 
     Socrates, however, argues that "a lover does not seek the half or whole."  Thus, he
opposes Aristophanes' view.  However, in dissecting the speeches, one can interpret that
Aristophanes' "other half" must represent good and beauty.  And the special love Socrates
speaks off, in essence, would fulfill and complete his existence.  This may not necessarily
be physical complement, but it is indeed, spiritual. 


 What is the work of love? 
     The central, grandest achievement of love is unity.  Aristophanes believes that the
union of lovers and their beloveds ultimately brings about happiness.  In the myth,
Aristophanes tells us that Apollo was commanded to heal the wound after human beings were
split apart and reoriented.  Here, he personifies love as a healer.  It is the great work of
love that mediates the union between lovers: "love calls back the halves of our original
nature together; it tries to make one out of two and heal the wound of nature" (191 D).  Is
he implying that to be incomplete is to be in the state of illness?  If so, it is the union
then, that provides the cure. 
     Aristophanes view love as a great god that endow our world with the greatest gift:
unity and therefore happiness.  He believes that "we must praise Love.. .Love draws us
towards what belongs us.  For the future,  Love promises the greatest hope of all: if we
treat the gods with due reverence, he will restore to us our original nature, and by healing
us, he will make us blessed and happy" (193 D).  When Aristophanes say to revere Love, he
may also mean to revere love the phenomenon.  For, love is a serious matter.  It does
mysterious wonders. Yet in the same token, it can relentlessly bring about great pain and
misery.  Thus, Aristophanes is indirectly warning us when he says " so, there's a danger
that if we don't keep order before the god, he will split us  into two again" (193 B).  
     According to Socrates, the great work of love, grander than the union of lovers, is
offspring or immortality and happiness.  It is the principle of nature that "mortals seek as
far as possible to live forever and be immortal"(207 D). ( This idea, later, is to be part
of Darwin's theory of evolution).  Socrates explains earlier in the speech that love is the
desire for good and beauty and that one wants to always possess them.  Thus, in the presence
of a beautiful body, we naturally want to give birth, to create something beautiful.  "Love
is not beauty alone, but creation of beauty"(206 D).  By doing so, we have immortalized the
beauty that is present.  Socrates talks of pregnancy not only in term of reproduction of
another being, but in a broader spectrum; such as the conception of virtue and wisdom.  for
example, it was wisdom that brought about order and harmony in cities and homes.  This is
known as the moderation of justice (210 E).   Socrates believes that "anyone will do
anything for the sake of immortality, virtue, and the glorious fame that follows; the better
the people, the more they will do, for they are all in love with immortality" (208E).  Thus
it  through love, the messenger, that the divine is born.   
     It is also through love that a vivid painting of Beauty is portrayed for us.  It goes
     from 
one beautiful body to manifold other, successively higher (here, he longer talks about
pulchritude, but rather Beauty itself.  Thus in "the end we learn what it is to be
beautiful" (211 D).  Thus, via Love, we can become immortal and know Beauty itself.  But in
order to do so, as stated by Aristophanes, we must honor the rites of love.  We must be true
to virtue and nourish it.  Socrates state that to acquire this virtue, "human nature can
find no better workmate ..than Love" (212 C). 
     Both Socrates and Aristophanes praise the work of love, however, under the condition
that love is honored.  In many respect, love is omnipotent; from it we can extract the power
to pursuit virtue and immortality.  It was through the love of nature that Emerson produced
his famous work: Nature.  It was perhaps from his knowledge of beautiful bodies that Michael
Angelo painted the most exquisite portraits of human anatomy. 
     Throughout their speeches, Socrates and Aristophanes speak of a recurrent theme of
love; it's ultimate end beatitude.  Though, the speeches are set in different regard and
ideologies, they are in many respect, similar.  That is , to acquire or unite with good and
beauty to embrace happiness.  The speech of Aristophanes indeed, foreshadows that of
Socrates'.

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Name: TX-PLATO.TXT
Uploader: Terrance Xavier
Email: terrax@delta.net
Language: English
Subject: Philosophy
Title: What is love and the work of love?
Grade: 88%
System: College
Age: 20
Country: USA
Comments: Love according to Socrates, Plato, and Aristophanes
Where I got Evil House of Cheat Address: My friend

