Two types of Love
I have always thought that there was only one type of love, which was that feeling of overwhelming liking to someone else. I am aware that Lust does exist and that it is separate from Love, being that the desire for someone's body rather their mind. In Plato's Symposium, Plato speaks of many different types of love, loves that can be taken as lust as well. He writes about seven different points of view on love coming from the speakers that attend the symposium in honor of Agathon. Although all these men bring up excellent points on their definitions on love, it is a woman that makes the best definition be known. I will concentrate on the difference between the theory of Common and Heavenly love brought up by Pausanias and the important role that Diotima plays in the symposium. Pausanias brings up an excellent way to think about Love. He explains that love can be broken down into two types, that of Common and Heavenly love. The common love is that when a man and a woman join merely to satisfy their sexual desires. On the other hand the heavenly love is the type that occurs when two people are attracted to each other with a strong force that goes past the physical appearance but comes from deep within as if from the soul.
This other Aphrodite was born before Zeus and was most likely the goddess that Phaedrus spoke of in his speech: There is no other god older than the god of Love. In the case of common love people are pregnant with the desire to rid their bodies of lust and therefore search for another being to complete their sexual act thus enabling them to give birth to satisfaction. It is obvious that Plato does not think the same about women as they were perceived to be from the other speakers since he gives a woman the credit of making the best contribution to the discussion. 463, 178c) According to Phaedrus, when a man loves another man it is pure beauty, a virtuous life lesson for the young man. always lying in the dirt without a bed. It is odd how Diotima is not actually present but highly esteemed even after the men know that she is in fact a woman, a being that is thought of as ignorant and a mere tool used for reproduction. 469, 184e) These young men were not only introduced to new facts of life through their lovers, but were said to be The only kind of boys that grow up to be real men in politics(p. When a man is pregnant he desires to give birth to a beautiful self-identity and/or an idea. 489, 206d) In the case of heavenly love, when a woman is pregnant the body is wanting to give birth to another beautiful human being. 486, 203d) This statement should not be taken in the wrong direction and thought of as the common love, but as a new form of love that is something in between the heavenly love and common love. The men that are spoken about in during the symposium have fallen into both types although they seem to appreciate the heavenly love above the common. With the existence of two types of love it is easy to fall into one category of them.
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