Sara Rice: 2/1/24 reading reflection- plato’s symposium (required text)

 Upon reading Plato’s symposium, it appears that according to Plato love and beauty are intertwined. Through my interpretation it seems as if true love is associated with true beauty. This writing also seems to allude to that beauty is in the eyes of our own interpretation. Through reflecting on the main themes of this writing I have come to the conclusion that I agree with Plato. Beauty is something that can be idolized to us, especially with the presence of enhancement tools that are commonly used in society. It seems as if perfection and beauty are one in the same, and often times that is created in our own mind. The reality of finding something so perfectly beautiful in the world is not as common as we portray it in our minds. Life is full of imperfections, but to society only certain imperfections are still seen as beautiful. This is commonly seen in different art styles; some kinds of art are only seen as beautiful because they are stereotypical to what our society already deems as “acceptably beautiful”. Pushing the envelope of art and beauty is where a lot of criticism comes from since our mind already has created this false reality of what perfect beauty is. This is incredible to see that even during Plato’s time, mankind had the same thoughts that we currently have.

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