I wanted my first post to be on Love. SO- Plato, as a famous Ancient Greek Philosopher, and one of the first known dudes to write on love and what it was/meant to him- is an obvious start. The reason I wanted to write on Him and his love is because honestly it is cool to see how ideas change over time and how people today may believe the same or similar things and never know where those beliefs come from.
My favorite part of Plato is his basic Theory of Forms. The reader gets a very cool( and creative) outline of a metaphysical explanation for how we can know the information about the world before Kant came in(way later) with his "Prolegomena". Plato believed in innate knowledge- that as humans- at a certain age we knew that big was "big", and red was "red", and a square was a "square". These were something like universal truths for the human race. Language was proof of this- all people called a flower a "flower". You can tell this is a very early theory right? X)
So the story goes- the reason we all know these universal truths is because when we get to Heaven we see these nifty little things called forms. Ultimate forms of the colors, shapes, numbers, children, people, paintings, and everything else that could possibly exist. When we are reincarnated we see forms in other subjects on earth and recognize them as shadows of their ultimate selves. No form on Earth can ever be as good as the forms that exist in Heaven. This was my favorite theory in metaphysics- that was before I read the Symposium. Details really flush out this theory and make it into somethings that seems lacking.
Beauty is really important to Plato. Beauty is the ultimate form that you want to get to in Heaven and the way you do that on earth is to use love as the first step on a ladder that leads to the ultimate form. Starting a paper for one class- I was super excited to be writing on love and Plato's theory of Forms- only to find out- I am a women- so I can pretty much never reach Beauty. I can make physical beauty by giving birth- but never anything higher. I can't even begin to climb the ladder because the beautiful love that is the first step is Eros- love between a older man and a young boy. Ironic huh? How do we leave that out of common facts about Plato? He is one of the fathers of western thought and he was a pedophile. Anyway, the reason love between grown men and young boys inspired virtue is that helped better structure family and society(so Diotoma says/Plato writes).
I don't like this idea of love because it is a means to an end. The person loved doesn't really matter to Plato. Eventually the goal is to outgrow the individual and head for higher steps like ideas- philosophy, science, eventually getting to the Form of Beauty. This is of course my interpretation. Some people hold that just because the boy is no longer "over valued" by the man- that it doesn't mean the boy isn't still beautiful- just that the lover now sees the young body as part of a larger beauty. When you read Plato's actual lines- you read the ascendance as a ladder- you don't take the steps with you- the person going up continues going up and leaves the steps behind. I thought this was a cool place to start because despite my not really human (FEMALE! GASP!) body- I like the Theory of Forms outside of the concept of love.
I started here because I know this is not how I feel about love. I don't believe the body matters very much in love. Although sex I realize is apart of romantic relationships, I just know you may not be initially attracted to someone you fall in love with upon first meeting them. I feel almost contradictory about this beause if you want to have sex with someone upon meeting them how will you ever know you didn't just want to get to know them because you wanted something physical from them? (lol I know this may sound oddly Kantian- you may only know you love/respect someone by not wanting to have sex with them initially- at least to know you aren't accidently using them as a means to an end.) but it is something I have spent much time thinking about. Biology is so strong and can be so much stronger then the mind at times.
I don't believe people seek what makes them happy always or that people are a means to an end. For peeps who aren't sure what that means- I believe other people have autonomy or free will and what they want for themselves just matters. Treating someone as a means to an end is using them to get what you want from them- and this in turn disrespects them as not recognizing they matter just as much as you do. So! moral of this very first blog: How do you find out what you believe?! Narrow the field by discovering things you know you do not believe. That's the scientific way anyhow. So here is one theory I disagree with and tada- Numero Uno Blog!!!!
