Write a 6 pages paper on the vision of ideal life for men. Eros, the God of love, has been proposed that there are praises and songs for all the gods, yet none have been made for Eros.&nbsp.Ultimately, Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics provides different discourses on the different kinds of love, and through Socrates’ conversation with Diotima, it is concluded that through love, in the purest and most powerful form, men may arrive at the highest good.

In Plato’s symposium, different speeches in praise of Eros was given about how great a god he is. Phaedrus began by saying how Eros was a great god and went on to explain that love, above everything else, is the driving force of man in living a good life. He goes on to justify that love in its superior form, is one wherein a lover is willing to die for another, citing the case of Alcestis, the daughter of Pelias, who was willing to die to be able to gain entrance to the underworld to be with her lover (Plato 179c).

Pausanias spoke about the love of the “common” and “heavenly” kind. The common love is that which falls on love with the body rather than the mind, and is concerned with merely the sexual act, while the heavenly love is that is free from lust and is based on friendship and a lifetime together (Plato 180e). Pausanias also claimed that open love is better than secret love. He concludes by saying that love does not come in only one form, and love is neither right nor wrong as well, but only depends on how it is done.

Eryximachus approves the dualities presented by Pausanias, yet he attempts to reconcile the physical and spiritual kind of love, and in respect to his profession, cites the human anatomy and physiology as an example. He claims that just like the body, there are good and healthy elements that need to be satisfied, while there are bad and unhealthy elements that need to be kept away from (Plato 186c).

Aristophanes, on the other hand, relates love to the myth that says that originally, the human being had four legs, four hands, two heads, etc. and that it was just then divided into male and female, that is why in love, two people would come together and unite as one body and one soul (Plato 190). Agathon, however, argued that love is from where all things are created.