What is love?Love of something or of nothing?

When you have nothing , you strive for something, you try to love something. Something is thing you do not have . Pursuing something is because you do not have it , first thing for peace is to accept that you do not have it and your love over nothing.


posted on TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2009- and repost here

Diotima now shifts the locus of the discussion from the heavens to the human condition. Eros is to be seen as involved in that which is in between wisdom and ignorance. This is not a matter for the gods, since they possess wisdom (e.g., a knowledge of the Good and the Beautiful)(203e). But very few, if any, mortals have ever attained wisdom. Most men are ignorant and, further, ignorant of their ignorance (204a). However, some mortals are aware of their ignorance. That is to say, some mortals experience a lack within themselves (e.g., they are aware that they do not know Beauty and Goodness). On the basis of this lack, these mortals also experience a desire to gain such wisdom. They strive for wisdom and are called lovers of wisdom (204b).

what will one have to eventually possesses beautiful things? At this, Socrates is confused. Diotima replaces the notion of beauty with the notion of the good (GREEK) and Socrates answers that they who possess the good are happy (GREEK)(204e). Thus people desire the good because it will grant them happiness or well being (205a).

How do mortals, through Eros, pursue the good in order to secure their happiness? The answer initially provided shows that mortals seek to secure the object of their happiness through begetting or giving birth (GREEK) upon beautiful things, both in the physical and spiritual sense (206b). Now, this answer places a perspective upon the role of the beautiful. The beautiful is that upon which love grows (206e).

Eros strives for the twofold objects of immortality and the good and it does so through the beautiful (207a)