Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: July 1, 2025
Such, Phædrus and I speak not only to you, but to all men were the words of Diotima; and I am persuaded of their truth. And being persuaded of them, I try to persuade others that in the attainment of this end human nature will not easily find a better helper than Love.
Go at once to Diotima and tell her that we beg her to give us hospitality for a few days, and house-room for our chattels." "And if Caesar does not keep his word?" asked Euphorion gloomily. "What sort of a life shall we live then?" "A bad one-a dog's life; and for that very reason it is wiser to enjoy now what we still possess. A cup of wine, Pollux, for me and your father.
For herein is the evil of ignorance, that he who is neither good nor wise is nevertheless satisfied; he feels no want, and has therefore no desire." "But who then, Diotima," I said, "are the lovers of wisdom, if they are neither the wise nor the foolish?" "A child may answer that question," she replied; "they are those who, like Love, are in a mean between the two.
It is significant that Socrates does not claim to be giving his own thoughts when speaking of love. He says he is only relating what a woman once imparted to him as a revelation. It was through mantic art that he came to his conception of love. Diotima, the priestess, awakened in Socrates the daimonic force which was to lead him to the divine. She initiated him.
But some one will say: Of the beautiful in what, Socrates and Diotima? or rather let me put the question more clearly, and ask: When a man loves the beautiful, what does he desire? "I answered her, 'That the beautiful may be his. "'Still, she said, 'the answer suggests a further question: What is given by the possession of beauty? "'To what you have asked, I said, 'I have no answer ready.
Diotima ceased and a profound silence ensued the youth with his cheeks flushed and his eyes burning with the fire communicated from hers still fixed them on her face which was lifted to heaven as in inspiration The lovely female bent hers to the ground & after a deep sigh was the first to break the silence
I believe that, although explained in the terms of fantastic, almost mythical metaphysic, the speech of Diotima contains a great truth, deposited in the heart of man by the unnoticed innumerable experiences of centuries and peoples; a truth which exists in ourselves also as an instinctive expectation, and which the advance of knowledge will confirm and explain.
For one is an ascent from sensibles to the first intelligibles; a second is an ascent through things demonstrated and subdemonstrated, to undemonstrated and immediate propositions; and a third proceeds from hypothesis to unhypothetical principles. Of the first of these species, Plato has given a most admirable specimen in the speech of Diotima in the Banquet.
"'But why of generation? "'Because to the mortal creature, generation is a sort of eternity and immortality, she replied; 'and if, as has been already admitted, love is of the everlasting possession of the good, all men will necessarily desire immortality together with good: wherefore love is of immortality. "I was astonished at her words and said: 'Is this really true, O thou wise Diotima?
"I am sure I am as much like Diotima as you are like Plato," retorted the lady. "But let us come to our own time. Do I not hear that that creature Pannychis has obtained the freedom of the philosophers' city, and the right to study therein?" "She takes private lessons from Hermon, who is responsible for her." "The very thing!" exclaimed Leaena triumphantly.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking