This short exert from Plato's symposium exams love from the viewpoint of Socrates. Socrates asks an oracle to describe for him love in order to draw out the idea of what love really is. This quote in particular stood out to me;
"To what you have asked," I replied, "I have no answer ready." "Then," she said, "Let me put the word 'good' in the place of the beautiful, and repeat the question once more: If he who loves good, what is it then that he loves? "The possession of the good," I said. "And what does he gain who possesses the good?" "Happiness," I replied; "there is less difficulty in answering that question." "Yes," she said, "the happy are made happy by the acquisition of good things. Nor is there any need to ask why a man desires happiness; the answer is already final."
It was quite funny for me when I read this part. It reads exactly like the philosophy of Thomas Aquinas. Aquinas basically states many of the same points. That all men seek happiness and that it is through love that man seeks this good and happiness. Aquinas goes one step further and states that the perfect good which is described as love in the essay is God. Many people equate God with love which gives a different meaning to many of the movies we see.
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