The concept of love is a very ambiguous and controversial idea on which it is almost impossible to reach a single consensus. In this essay I will describe and compare two philosophical views on the concepts and ideas underlying love. Through the works of Todd May and Plato, the different approaches to the concept of love will be illustrated as well as determining the similarities and differences between the two perspectives. Because Todd May focuses on the intensity involved in the idea of romantic love, rather than the idea of sex and love, he insists that the most intimate relationships were all the more intense because of the constant commitment one has to an individual ( ****) - you two in which the relationship consists create a private world. Within the Symposium, Plato depicted Love not as an idealization, but rather on the judgment that was made by Love's control over the human body (lesson). One speech in particular, the one told by Aristophanes, presents an interesting and mythical look at the concept of love. The love he describes is a dedication to the idea of soulmate love (lesson). They were spherical people, that is, completely round, “they had four hands each, as many legs as hands, and two faces, exactly the same, on a rounded neck. Between the two faces, which were on opposite sides, was a head with four ears (Plato 25).” Because these beings have more limbs and eyes than any god, they were considered too powerful, which led the god Zeus to split them in half. Once divided, the beings began to starve and became idle as they could not live without their other half (Plato 26-27). Aristophanes concluded that since their separation from each other was the cause of their deaths, it was nothing more than a demonstration of the desire that humans have to love one another, as stated on page 27: " This, then, is the source of our desire to love each other…heal the wound of human nature.” The perspective presented by Aristophanes concerns a fusion between an object - or individual, and the object of desire; love is about intimacy momentary both physical and emotional. Aristophanes presents the desire for the momentary intimacy that the human body craves in his speech by saying: "The purpose was so that... they could stop hugging, go back to their work and take care of the other needs of life. (Plato 27)." This particular quote is important because it represents Aristophanes' general view that human beings desire each other, need each other; however, once the object of desire, they are free to continue with the rest of their lives
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