Plato and Solomon Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Plato and Solomon - Essay Example In contrast, Solomon is of the view that that love is rather a convergence of various desires i.e. sexual, ethical or other practical emotions which makes love a matter of rational choice based on human`s subjective understanding of phenomena. Thus, it is clear that on one hand where Plato treats love as a philosophical entity, on the other hand Solomon takes love as reciprocity of emotions based on one`s past experiences. To further elaborate, it is crucial to discuss in detail separately how Plato and Solomon perceived the concept of love. In one of his speeches, Plato clearly reinstated the idea that seeking love is parallel to seeking wisdom. In other words, there is no wisdom in suppressing one`s sexual desires or other similar emotions, rather wisdom lies in training and refining these desires to acquire higher levels of wisdom (Plato 84-85). One of the speeches where Plato presented his idea of love was at a symposium which was central to the social life of Athens, during a discussion on the concept of love. During the speech, the central argument of Plato was to prove that love surrounds the concept of philosophy always, and can`t be understood otherwise. More so, he treats philosophy as the highest of the expressions that love may acquire and further prompts that this philosophy drives us in our everyday affairs (Santas 33). This could further be augmented by the fact that humans develop a se nse of attraction and appeal to beautiful people or aesthetic music as a direct appeal for ‘beauty’ and philosophy is what directs one to desire what is considered to be beautiful. This concept can be related to Aristophanian view of love, alongside Socratian analysis of the conception of love. Aristophanes understands love as one of the forms of some myth. He presents his myth as the genesis of human race, where they had four legs and four arms, also two heads where a few were males and other were females, and yet a few hermaphrodites. Thus, we were