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Plato's Symposium Summary

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Introduction to Philosophy: Class Six
• Plato’s Symposium is one of Plato’s most mature pieces and focuses on love.
• Why do different languages/people/religions use a variety of words for love o Some words sound erotic to certain people o A lot of people disassociate physicality/sexuality from spirituality
 Plato believes physicality and sexuality are required to reach spirituality
 This is called an orgasmic view
 He thinks sex is the vehicle for spirituality
• What moves us in life? o Pathos- passion o Love
• Love gives us the moral justification of anything and everything o Nothing is more important than love o We would die for something or someone we love o Love makes us authentic o If you don’t love something, you should not participate …show more content…

o Pedophilia is the love of children. o The master is the lover and the youth are the beloved.
• To reach spirituality in this ladder, you need Eros/sexuality and physicality. This is the orgasmic view that Socrates believes in. o Ex. Devotion
 Lighting a candle is more significant than praying because it lasts longer. o Ex. Marriage
 After marrying someone, you must have sex that night to legitimatize the marriage.
 This physical act is what helps you to experience god.

Homework Assignment: Aristotle- Nicomachean Ethics Book 1
• Section One: o All things are done in aim of the good…therefore, the good has been at the aim of everyone actions o The end goal of each persons action differ depending on the activity they are pursuing o Activities can be the ends of the actions, but the ends can also be apart from the activities
• Section Two: o The best good is something that we work on until we find an end in it
 “If we do not choose everything for the sake of something else”, then we will have no desire o Politics includes strategy, economics, and rhetoric. It produces end good in the sense that it creates rules for others
• Section …show more content…

• Section Eleven: o Individuals descendants play a role in the persons happiness o However, the individual can still make themselves happier or miserable
• Section Twelve: o Is happiness praised or prized?
 Since it is divine, happiness is honored o Is a virtuous personality praised or prized?
 Praised- “for we praise the just or brave man and in general both the good man and virtue itself because of the actions and functions involved, and we praise the strong man, the good runner, and so on, because he is of a certain kind and is related in a certain way to something good and

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