Short answer Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Short answer - Essay Example Now the kind of love that explains the relationship between man and woman, those are a couple of sexual partners, can be defined as a category in itself. However, referring to Aristotle’s works, Solomon might have tried to define love in a broader context. Consequently, he selected to reflect on human behavior (and particularly his/her statements) during sex. And Solomon does not hesitate to consider love from both homosexual and heterosexual perspectives. This turns a possible classification scheme rather blur because homosexual relationships cannot lead to child birth and be adjusted within the traditional concept of family. So, Solomon’s theory gives rise to a possible categorization scheme, where love is to be redefined as per the different situations that come up in the course of making love. And this love-making can be just hugging and kissing. It can also be a more intensive activity like sexual intercourse. Or it can be just like sharing words of affection or st aring at each other in fascination. In sum, categorizing love on the basis socio-sexual behavior becomes so much multidimensional so that no categorization remains achievable at all. And a single category of romantic love appears to be most difficult to shape. Finally, Solomon expresses his lack of confidence on today’s definition of romantic love. ... (Symposium, 207A) Diotima has been a controversial figure in the history of philosophy. There are opinions that Diotima is nothing but a character created by Plato himself. On the other hand, historical research reveals that Plato talked about the prophecies of real characters; so Diotima might have been a real philosopher of ancient Greece. Whatever was the case, Diotima’s definition and perspective on human love can be better understood as a Platonic concept since most of her ideas have been conveyed and/or analyzed by Plato only. Diotima was a female philosopher, so her analysis is important from the perspective of studying gender relations too. Hence the term Platonic love can be attributed to Diotima in a wider way. Apparently, Platonic love is an acceptance of the power of beauty and it might be related to sexuality too, because beauty is largely about physical attractiveness of a person. However, Diotima’s treatment of the topic was not as much linear as a sexual ity and physical beauty related affair. In fact, she tried to correlate love with the beauty of mind. For Diotima, begetting something cannot be just a physical achievement as must be explained in terms of touch, visibility, etc. Diotima put more emphasis on the realization of beauty by human mind that culminate at divinity. So originating from Diotima’s fundamental prophecies, Platonic love accomplishes at the essence of asexual love, where beauty and creation are still at the prime focus. So sexuality can also be introduced in this realm, but not from the viewpoint of fulfilling sexual desire. Sex and beauty, from the view of Platonic love can be more purposive as for to have children or build relationship. Finally, Diotima’s approach appears to be more holistic and