Love: an aspect of life both complex and simple, both mysterious and apparent, both evasive and accessible. Great thinkers have mused over this concept, its different forms and effects, for centuries. Many ask the question of love's role in happiness: is it truly necessary? Both Plato and Aristotle argue the importance of love in attaining true contentment. However, the different forms they describe carry different connotations and different levels of influence on life.
In Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, he states the importance of philia in leading a life of contentment. "For friendship is a certain virtue or is accompanied by virtue; and, further, it is most necessary with a view to life; without friends, no one would choose to live..."1His …show more content…
Symposium often speaks of the courage found in lovers that no one else possesses without the interference of eros: "...no one is so base that true Love could not inspire him with courage, and make him brave as if he'd been born a hero... This is really Love's gift to every lover." 14 This passage also makes the distinction between the aforementioned common and Heavenly love, distinguishing its perfection by capitalizing the word. This implies that if the love one harbors is not Heavenly, it will not bestow this gift. Plato later describes even more gifts that true Love gives its lovers. Love moves us to mildness, removes us from wildness... Treasure to lovers, envy to others, father of elegance, luxury, delicacy, grace, yearning, desire... Love is our best guide and guard; he is our comrade and our savior." 15 He here describes Love in a new way, almost as a travelling companion, guiding people throughout life and helping them attain …show more content…
Even though the very old and very young are more likely to engage in worse forms of love, nobody is exempt from the gifts true friendship gives. "And friendship is a help to the young, in saving them from error, just as it is also to the old, with a view to the care they require...it is a help also to those in their prime in performing noble actions, for 'two going together' are better able both to think and act." 17
According to Plato and Aristotle, love is not only necessary for true happiness, but the most important aspect of it. It not only fills a deep longing in the human soul, but grants gifts that allow those who receive them to live their lives to the fullest potential. However, one must be careful to engage only in true, complete, Heavenly love – other forms of love cannot bear the ever-changing winds of life, and will eventually leave only more longing and depravity. If one loves with a good heart, and lives with good intentions, their life radiates an endless joy that will never
In Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, he states the importance of philia in leading a life of contentment. "For friendship is a certain virtue or is accompanied by virtue; and, further, it is most necessary with a view to life; without friends, no one would choose to live..."1His …show more content…
Symposium often speaks of the courage found in lovers that no one else possesses without the interference of eros: "...no one is so base that true Love could not inspire him with courage, and make him brave as if he'd been born a hero... This is really Love's gift to every lover." 14 This passage also makes the distinction between the aforementioned common and Heavenly love, distinguishing its perfection by capitalizing the word. This implies that if the love one harbors is not Heavenly, it will not bestow this gift. Plato later describes even more gifts that true Love gives its lovers. Love moves us to mildness, removes us from wildness... Treasure to lovers, envy to others, father of elegance, luxury, delicacy, grace, yearning, desire... Love is our best guide and guard; he is our comrade and our savior." 15 He here describes Love in a new way, almost as a travelling companion, guiding people throughout life and helping them attain …show more content…
Even though the very old and very young are more likely to engage in worse forms of love, nobody is exempt from the gifts true friendship gives. "And friendship is a help to the young, in saving them from error, just as it is also to the old, with a view to the care they require...it is a help also to those in their prime in performing noble actions, for 'two going together' are better able both to think and act." 17
According to Plato and Aristotle, love is not only necessary for true happiness, but the most important aspect of it. It not only fills a deep longing in the human soul, but grants gifts that allow those who receive them to live their lives to the fullest potential. However, one must be careful to engage only in true, complete, Heavenly love – other forms of love cannot bear the ever-changing winds of life, and will eventually leave only more longing and depravity. If one loves with a good heart, and lives with good intentions, their life radiates an endless joy that will never