Plato versus Nietzsche on Philosophical Approaches to Love
In The Republic, Plato (252-253) distinguished between the twoprimary types of love: the erotic, romanticized love felt by individuals,and friendship or love which was caring but devoid of any sexual desire orconnotation. Plato (252) recognized that "surely some terrible, savage,and lawless form of desire is in every man." Because this was the case,love can be "called a tyrant (Plato, 253)." Love acquires the profile of atyrant when it becomes the or at least a dominant force in shaping man's Plato (255) asserted that man needed to eliminate any tyrannyestablished by love because when he was subject to the grip of love and itsimpulses, "love lives like a tyrant within him in all anarchy andlawlessness; and, being a monarch, will lead the man whom it controls, asthough he were a city, to every kind of daring." While differentiatingbetween the desirable love to be found in friendship, Plato (291)emphasized the primacy of filial love and maintained that non-erotic love
This particular philosopher, while recognizing that man loves many things,also believed "your love of life shall be love of your highest hope(Nietzsche 160). " Like Plato before him, Nietzsche (65) recognizedthe difference between eros and its obverse, Platonic love, in which humansfind enormous personal and emotional satisfaction in their relationshipswithout the addition of sexual intercourse or contact. Nietzsche (65)saw Christianity as ideal for people with "sublimated sexuality. Nietzsche's (172) view of love contained a recognition that "yourlove of the neighbor is your bad love of yourselves. However, Nietzsche (65) did recognize that many people missed loveand, therefore, Christianity as a "lyrical religion" offered thoseindividuals an opportunity to find what they have missed. This is not to suggest that Plato (137) rejected erotic love, but ratherthat he put it in a position subordinate to that of friendship. " Plato (81) saw love as a virtue related in many ways to happiness and tothat which is good. Though there are some similarities between the twophilosophers with regard to their recognition that love has many different"faces" and uses, it would appear on balance that Plato considered love tobe a more valuable and even necessary thing than did Nietzsche. " Central in love of any type from this perspective islove of the self. " Nietzsche (173) doesnot recommend loving the neighbor much less loving the neighbor as oneself. Nietzsche's concern was focused on the individual whereas much of Plato'sdiscourse in The Republic had to do with the creation of a society orsocial system in which man could find harmony and peace. Sexual love or filial love should be subordinated inthis view to love of self and a personal will to power. Nietzsche (65) found something "ambiguous and suggestive about theword love, something that speaks to memory and to hope, that even thelowest intelligence and the coldest heart still feels something of theglimmer of this word. ity to unite men in society and ultimately to improve society.
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