Love in the Western World

This paper will trace in common the various views on sleep with as expressed by the variant speakers in Platos Symposium and explore in detail the theories of sexual desire, Philia, Storge and open and the intention it has on the notions of erotic admire, filial venerate, sacrificial experience and spiritual complete. other argona that will be drawn into focus is the theory of Platonic love based on Platos hypothesis. The context of the symposium is a expire-together of the students of Socrates who get to talking and decide to take turns and speak in praise of eros, the paragon of Love.Of the speakers Phaedrus speaks first and talks ab by the virtuosity Eros promotes in those who experience love. He talks about the aw beness that uncoiled love can cheer in hu gentlemans so that man executes conscious of the solemn qualities of honor, loyalty, courage and fidelity. Pausanius is the next to speak and dwells on the different resistants of love, from the common banal love to the higher, spiritual diverseness of love. The earthy love is not as noble as the intellectual love which is more(prenominal) faithful and elevates the mind and is wholly devoid of appetency.According to him the pursuit of higher knowledge and wisdom is the more honorable and the wantonness of fleshly love is shameful. Eryximachus talks about the fantasy of good love that helps man to be judicious and methodical. Eryximachus is a posit and philosopher and talks about love beyond relationships, about intellectualism, the love of ideas, concepts and the delicately arts like music. He speaks of the advantages love brings to humans, the nigh important creation the ability to discern mingled with honor and dishonor.He be dwellves that there are opposing affables of loves in every living existence including animals and plants. However, true love is achieved through a synthesis of these opposing elements and that it can be the overflow and source of power, friendship and happiness (Platos Symposium). Aristophanes, the jester and humorist came up with the concept of love as man in search of his individual mate and partner in order to feel one cease whole. He talks about man being split into half(prenominal) by genus Zeus for threatening to over run the Gods.Later Zeus modified his terrible act and allowed the 2 halves to marry as man and cleaning lady. It is said that ever since the two halves buzz off been in search of the other. Socrates himself speaks close of all and talks of love as being the human desire for knowledge, wisdom and beauty. Love is the desire for what is beautiful and may not inevitably mean beauty in itself. According to Socrates love is the mere port between what he desires and the inclination of his desire. When man has achieved real love he will be able to create beauty, conceptualize perfection and become wise and virtuous.In classic mythology Eros is one of the three oldest Gods along with Cronos and Chaos and s tands for love. The word erotic is derived from the God of love, Eros, who encourages and endorses all those who seek him to actualize acts of virtue and merit. As has been mentioned before, all those indicate at the party or symposium have laid down their postulates and have spoken about different carriageings of love and what it does for man. To further explore the concept of the various kindlys of love allow us address the broad definition of these categories agape(predicate), Storge, Philia and Eros.Agape stands for spiritual love, the kind of love God has for his creatures and the love man strives to return. This kind of love transcends sensible boundaries and is a higher form of love which finds fulfillment in but being there. It kindles spirituality and is perfection itself. Nothing can tarnish this kind of love and to most mortals have the appearance _or_ semblances almost impossible to attain. We can find examples of this kind of love in Christianity. In literatu re, I have found this kind of love being depicted in certain kinds of love lyrics that live to the Renaissance age.In Petrarchs poetry for instance, the poets object of desire, the indefinite Laura, is continually shown as someone unr distributivelyable. Lauras eyes are compared to stars her vitrine is a lot described as being so radiant as to make looking at her impossible. This imagery often ties up with how the gimmick of God is described in Christianity. Here, the conflict between Eros and Agape is continually present. The poet often feels helplessly tied between the demands of the earthier, physical Eros and the spiritual, the allegedly purer kind of Agape (Houston).Storge is synonymous with love that engenders sacrifice and purity. This is the kind of love parents feel for their children. This kind of love does not wait for reciprocality to grow and is there notwithstanding. The bilgewater of Abraham and Isaac is an interesting scriptural instance of these two kinds of love where Storge is compelled to be sacrificed for the greater Agape. In order to substantiate the unspoiled extent of his Agape, his total devotion to God, Abraham is asked to sacrifice the thing he loves most. This happens to be Abrahams son Isaac, the person for who he feels the greatest Storge.In the biblical context, Agape is undeniably higher than Storge. Abraham is therefore first made to prove the full extent of his Agape before God relents and lets him keep the object of his Storge. Other instances of pronounced Storge in literature include the love Cordelia feels for her father, tycoon Lear in Shakespeares play. In this case however the Storge is made to come its sacrifice in a sense because both the kings belove daughter and the king himself die in the end. Philia, or companionable love, exists between friends, brothers and neighbors.This kind of love helps people to bond closely without being passionate or amorous. This kind of love prompts the feeling of camarader ie and brotherhood. A good example at hand would be the kind of love soldiers have amongst individually other, where they bond intimately and share their joys and sorrows together without a hint of any physical haul or manifestations. In Greek history, I have noticed the love depicted in the story of Damon and Pythias to be of this form. In the legend Damon and Pythias both survive Dionysus wrath because of their bad love for each other.But in another tale from the bible, the expiration is not nearly as fortunate. Cain and Abel, sons of Adam and Eve, at first loved each other in the truest sense of Philia. However, with the preference God showed for Abels sacrifice of animals over Cains agricultural offerings, Cains love turns to utmost(prenominal) jealousy and he ends up killing Abel. This is possibly the best cognize example of Philia getting overturned. Eros is passionate love, which can in most cases be closely linked to physical attraction and sexual love.Eros is often c losely associated with the animal kingdom and therefore classically considered to be a lower form. Eros can often contend with Agape as we have seen earlier. And a popular example of this is in Shakespeares Romeo and Juliet. The love that the two young nobles feel for each other is no doubt arising from a certain attraction, or Eros. And yet the manner in which they express their love for each other in a vocabulary that is similar to that of Agape. Romeo and Juliet address each other in abject terms, make it a love not of equals but of one subservient to the other.This of melodic phrase is one of the most common features of Agape. Although classically Eros is considered to be a lower form than Agape, as we have seen discussed in the Symposium, I in person feel this is not entirely fair. It is true that people often consider it nobler to love a person without wanting to possess him or her in a physical or earthly way. By implication this subject matter that a person loves someone for more than their physicality, that is to say a love founded on something deeper than superficial beauty. This is true in theory, but not evermore in practice.We often find that the Agape is more often than not directed towards someone of higher social standing, or towards a woman who is unreachable, like a noblewoman or fifty-fifty the queen. This amounts to aught victimize of sycophancy sometimes. Is it then less hypocritical than loving someone for their look? Eros is also equated with the animal kingdom and is therefore considered lower. But wherefore should something, that takes place in the natural world, be considered lower? If animals love each other erotically, does it not make it a more natural, or even a higher love?After all this kind of love is based on the truth of the bodys responses to the beloved if someone is beautiful and attractive physically, why should it be wrong to feel attraction or love for this person? Even if it is based only on appearances, Ero s is more genuine. There is no verbal intrusion that allows lovers to lie to each other or praise each other in hollow terms. Philia too I think is often under-rated in the present generation. Friends can often feel a lot of love between them without it being the Erotic or even the Agape type of love.We have been brainwashed by popular movies and books into always expecting friendships to turn into love as that fits in with the perfect happy ending of the plot. But why should this be? Why is simple, platonic love that expects nothing physical or amorous in return be less of a love than any other kind? After all, is it not nobler for two friends to love each other in spite of the fact that they have nothing physical or romantic to gain from each other? Storge also is often under-appreciated in popular culture.Love that exists within families has become such a rare instance in the days of divorce and estrangement that mayhap more of art needs to depict it now, more than ever. People seem to forget that our families are what we are born into. We carry our parents genes and share them with our siblings and nothing or no one else can ever change that. It is true that we are often unfortunate in this regard and there are many children brought into this world in an unloving family, but even so the love that exists between members of the family is something that precedes life itself.Just to think about what a pregnant mother endures for nine months and so many years hobby the birth, is enough to prove the argument. In conclusion, I think it is fruitless to shake off hours debating on which form of love is higher than the others because each kind of love, whether borne out of devotion, lust, filial ties or friendship, is a distinct kind of love. A sort of love that is unique to itself and therefore deserving of special attention. Instead of seek to compare them it is perhaps best to be grateful to know that they all exist.