One of the things we'll talk about in class today is how each of the first five speeches in the Symposium offer a view of love that is grounded in the point of view of the speaker. The various encomia to eros are actually praises of self-love.
Generally, Socrates' speech is regarded as a philosophical corrective to the first five, though on the issue of self-love, his presentation of Diotima's speech is not really all that different. He too defines love from his own perspective and wow, love looks a lot like a philosopher, (a sophist too).
I ran across the following quote by Ayn Rand this morning, "Love is an expression and assertion of self-esteem, a response to one's own values in the person of another."
End of Semester Life Report
4 months ago
Although I disagree with Rand's Ethical Egoism to a great degree, I do find her attitude toward self-esteem pivotal to the way we are able to experience love. I have often heard commentary on the idea that we are not capable of loving anyone else until we really learn how to love ourselves. I think this is a very pertinent claim. Often, I also think about Jesus' command that we love our neighbors as we love ourselves, but what if our version of self-love is corrupted? What if we do not or cannot love ourselves? How then, could we possibly love another? In the Symposium, Diotima instructs us to begin our process of loving by appreciating the beauty of the body of another. This a love that appears to begin exterior to ourselves. As you stated, all of the speeches in the Symposium arise from a place of self-love. I wonder then, does Diotima really teach us how to love if it is assuming a state of self-love already exists? If Rand is correct, does the Symposium really offer instruction to anyone who doesn't already posses some knowledge of love? All of the speakers already posses love for themselves, which seems to be the first and most critical step, but what is offered to those who have not even achieved this important state? Perhaps Socrates (Plato) placed the cart before the horse if love really requires an internal initiation before it can be applied to exterior objects i.e. others.
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