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In the Symposium by Plato, a group of men get together to drink and have a good time with each other. However, they were all still hung over from the previous night�s revelry, and, instead, decided to have a speech contest on the greatest of gods, Eros, as well as the emotion by the same name that he grants to mortals. The contest goes on, with no one really giving a good definition of love, until they get to the last contestant, Socrates. Socrates, as always, had plenty to say on the matter.

Socrates began by saying that love cannot stand by itself. Love is the love of something. If one loves something, one desires it. If one desires something, it is something you lack, and it is only desired when lacking. If one does have something desired, one must continue to desire it, or there is no love for it. �So in this, or any other, situation, the man who desires something desires what is not available to him, and what he doesn�t already have in his possession. And what he neither has nor himself is � that which he lacks � this is what he wants and desires.� (200 E)

Now, Eros loves beauty. However, with the argument as is, this means that �� Eros lacks, and does not possess, beauty.� This is where I must stop outlining Socrates� argument and disagree. It is being said that a person who loves beauty is therefore not beautiful since they can only love what they lack, or that a beautiful person is incapable of loving beauty since one cannot love what one already has. I, for one, fail to understand how this can be. How can a strong person not love strength? How can a beautiful person not love beauty? A strong or beautiful person tends to regard their strength or beauty as an attribute that is essential to their being who they are. If they do not love that which is essential to their being, it must be concluded that they do not love themselves. If one does not love oneself, it has been proven that this lack of self-love will cause detrimental affects to one�s psyche or health. To raise up an example, I present the case of anorexics or bulimics. Those with this sad disease do not love something essential to them, which is their own beauty or physical appearance. In an attempt to change this, they starve themselves or immediately regurgitate after a meal. This damages both their health and their psyche, as they think that they�re fat or ugly or just not satisfactory on some level.

Socrates continues to go on.

�SOCRATES: Would you agree that what is good is also beautiful?

AGATHON: Yes, I would.

SOCRATES: So, if Eros lacks beauty, and if what is good is beautiful, then Eros would lack what is good also.� (201 C)

I am dumbfounded. There is something about this section, as well as the rest of his speech, that seems to me to have an underlying wrongness about it. I cannot pick apart his logic, as it is clean and tight, but it does not give me a definition of love that satisfies me. Instead, it leaves me confused and wandering in my own thoughts. This has, however, given me a chance to consider my own thoughts on love.

Love is a very powerful emotion. Eros, the erotic love, combines aspects of lust, caring, and happiness. To borrow from Aristophanes, when one is in love, one feels complete. It is such an awesome feeling that people will go through sheer hell to get it. It is like a drug in this respect. It is addictive and once you have had a taste, you want all you can get. To love and to know that you are loved in return is, arguably, the best feeling in the world.

But, when you get down to it, love is just an emotion.