Eros

- Eros is God
- Granting love with a divine origin
- Pursuit of beauty, truth, and justice
 Physical beauty [Common love]
 Wisdom & truth [Heavenly love & Eryximachus]
- Immortality
- Significance of Eros
 Connect physical & metaphysical realms
 Motivating pursuit of knowledge and virtue
 Fostering meaningful relationships
 Personal growth within relationships
Eros is personified as a god in “Symposium”, however, its meaning and significance lies
beyond the identity of God. Eros is a powerful entity granting love with a divine origin and
drives individuals toward one another and toward the pursuit of beauty and truth. Eros
encompassing both physical attraction and intellectual longing for wisdom and truth.
Pausanias further distinguishes two types of Eros: Common Love and Heavenly Love.
Common Love initiates with physical attraction, it can be enjoyable but not necessarily
virtuous. However, Heavenly love pursuits virtue and wisdom beyond physical attraction.
Furthermore, Heavenly Love can result in mutual commitment of the partners to transcend
their limitations for pursuing higher and intellectual virtue. Eryximachus also argues, only
when men act with good sense and justice, Eros can possess the greatest power. The dialogue
suggests Eros is closely related to immortality as love drives individuals to creating lasting
legacies, whether through procreation or passing down one’s ideas and virtues. To conclude,
the significance of Eros lies in its ability to inspire men to contemplate the nature of love,
motivating the pursuit of knowledge and virtue in order to foster meaningful relationship.

Ladder of Love
- Diotima
- Metaphor of ladder
- Physical attraction
- Appreciation of all bodies
- Beauty of the soul
- Intellectual beauty
The concept of ladder of love is primarily represented in a speech of Diotima, was then
re-telling by Plato. The metaphor of ladder indicates the progression of love from physical
realms to a higher and more intellectual pursuit of understanding beauty and truth. The ladder
of love argues that love initiates from physical attraction. During the next stage of
appreciation of all bodies, men start to realize the physical beauty of all beings and are
encouraging to see beauty not only limiting to one’s lover. The next ascending stage involves
a shift from physical beauty to spiritual beauty, where lovers are able to focus on their inner
qualities, fostering a deeper connection and moral integrity. The last stage is of intellectual
beauty, where one can identify beauty from both physical and spiritual realms. This is a form
of unchanging and eternal truth. In recognizing all forms of beauty, the lover sees how all
beautiful things participate in this ideal. Like Plato said, “man becomes beauty itself.” The
significance of the ladder of love is based on its implication on the progressive evolution of
love from physical attraction to the pursuit of eternal beauty and truth. During the process, it
encourages lovers to pursuit knowledge about truth and drives lovers toward virtue.

Agape
- Selfishless and unconditional love [commitment to well-being of others]
- Divine love to humanity
- Command to love [men should love gods and others]
- Caring action and behavior encompassing kindness is an externalization of Agape
- Significance
 Reflection of God’s nature, serving as a foundation of Christian ethics
 Bring unity and community among believers
Agape is characterized by selfishlessness and unconditional love. Agape, or love in the
Bible”, is not contingent on feelings or worthiness. Instead, Agape is a commitment to the
well-beings of all the others around men. Moreover, such unconditional love is also the love
God held toward the humanity, and this is exemplified by Jesus Christs’ sacrifice.
Additionally, Agape is also a command for believers to love, as written in the Bible, believers
might love God with their “whole soul” and “love others as one loves oneself.” Caring actions
and behaviors encompassing kindness is an externalization of Agape in the community. One
of the major significances of Agape is that Agape is a reflection of God’s selfishless and
benevolent nature, and it serves as a model for humans. By practicing Agape, believers
imitate God’s love and contribute to the manifestation of God’s presence in the physical
world. By this reasoning, Agape is also a foundation of Christian ethics, where believers need
to be kind and caring toward each other. Another significance of Agape is that Agape provides
a sense of unity and community among the believers. It encourages people to support each
other and creating connective bonds of love, thus enhancing the strength of the church and
promoting harmony.

God is love
- Reveals the intrinsic nature of God: love is the fundamental motivation of God’s
attribution, and God’s holiness and justice operate within the context of love.
- God’s love is evident in creation.
 Creation is a gift, demonstrating God’s will to share the goodness with humanity
- God puts in great effort for human’s salvation  sacrificial love [Jesus’ sacrifice]
- God desires a connection with humanity; by practicing love, believers can experience
God’s love
- Significance
 The concept that “God is love” shapes the Christian understanding of salvation. It
signifies that salvation is offered as a gift of love, rooted in grace rather than human
merits.
 This is also an assurance in which God’s love provides comfort and hope to
believers, especially in times of difficulty.
The concept of “God is love” reveals the intrinsic nature of God and God’s relation with
the world and humanity. Firstly, love is the fundamental motivation for all God’s attributions.
This logic also applies to God’s holiness, as God’s holiness and the practice of justice are all
within the context of love. Moreover, this concept is evidence of God’s desire to create
connections with humanity, and this is achieved via creation. It is suggested in Bible, that
creation is a gift demonstrating God’s willing to share the goodness with humanity. On the
other way around, by practicing love, believers can experience the God’s love. Additionally,
“God is love” also explains Jesus’ sacrificial love in which he devotes his life for the salvation
of humanity. Speaking the significance of the concept of “God is love”, it shapes Christian
understanding of salvation. It signifies that salvation if a gist of love, rooted in grace instead
of human merits. Lastly, “God is love” provides believers with comfort and hope especially
during times of difficulty.

Interbeing
- Everything is interconnected
- Challenging dualistic thinking, in which people see the world in terms of opposites. [self
vs. others]
- Generation of a holistic view of life  fostering the appreciation of lives
- Enlightenment & cessation of suffering: Ultimately, understanding interbeing is crucial
for the Buddhist path to enlightenment. It is through recognizing our interconnectedness
that we can cultivate wisdom and compassion, leading to the cessation of suffering.
Interbeing means everything in the world is interconnected, and there is no real
independency between the relationships among things. An example written in the textbook,
the paper is made of wood, the wood is originated from a tree, the tree is watered by rain;
workers need to work together to make the paper, workers are born by their parents, their
parents are born by their ancestor, etc. Even though it is only a piece of paper, it is
interconnected with all things on the world, and this is a concrete example of what is meant
by interbeing. The concept of interbeing challenges the common dualistic thinking, in which
people see the world in terms of opposites, for example, self vs. others. Explaining with
interbeing, there is no self nor others, since we are all interconnected. Moreover, such concept
also generates a more holistic view of the things in the world fostering the appreciation of life.
By these significances of interbeing, understanding interbeing is crucial for Buddhist path to
enlightenment. It is through recognizing the interconnectedness that men can cultivate
wisdom, leading to the cessation of suffering.

Emptiness
- Emptiness is closely related to interbeing
- Empty of self [due to interbeing], a lack of inherent existence.
- Form is emptiness, emptiness is form: what we perceive as “form” (the physical world
and its phenomena) is not separate from emptiness. Conversely, emptiness itself is not a
void but dynamic nature existence of things.
- Understanding emptiness means one is well known that there is no self, so suffering does
not exist. This is a crucial statement to understanding in Buddhist for men to get on the
way of enlightenment  cessation of suffering
- Suffering, by Buddhist explanation, derives from attachment and desire, which are all
 rooted from the notion of a separate self. By understanding emptiness, one sees self is
only a illusion.
Negative liberty
Negative liberty is the freedom for individuals from interference, and interference can be
any obstacles imposed by others including by the government. The concept of negative liberty
lies the foundation of individual rights depicted in the Social Contract. It emphasizes that
individuals should be free to pursue their interests without unjust interference, which is vital
for a functioning democracy. However, negative liberty may also lead to chaos, and such
freedom should be constrained to some extent. As addressed by Rousseau in the Social
Contract, men and the government should all contributing to the achievement of general will
(the common interest for all), despite a minority of portion needs to give up their individual
wills. Rousseau’s view implies that while collective governance is essential, the state should
not encroach upon personal freedom. The ideal social contract is one where individuals
maintain their negative liberty while contributing to the general will.

General will
General will represents the collective interests and common good of people as a whole. It
is not merely the summation of individual interests but transcending the concept of individual
interest. General will embodies the collective aspiration of citizens and serves as a guide for
the government. This implies that a government is legitimate only when it serves the general
will. In the Social Contract depicted by Rousseau, people join society and contribute to the
general will to escape from the state of nature (people are free but vulnerable). Sometimes,
people may sacrifice their own individual interests to serve the society for obtaining
protection. This process involves a transformation of the notion of identity, where people are
not only defined by individual trait but also viewed as a part of a collective society. Rousseau
also argues, it is when people subordinate their individual interests to the general will, a
higher order of freedom is achieved.

Alienation from the product

Alienation from the product happens when the products are not owned by workers who
contributed their labor to produce these products. The workers work for capitalists, and what
they created is owned by capitalists, thus leading to a disconnection between workers and
products. The alienation from the product significantly contributes to the loss of meaning of
the humanity, where workers are not working for fulfillment nor creativity, but simply
working for an end of obtaining wages for survival. Additionally, such alienation also results
in the commodification of labor, as labor is viewed a trading object. This again may lead to
dehumanization, since the working products are no long a reflection of workers’ creativity and
personal expression.

Species-being
For Marx, species-being refers to the essence of humanity, which is fundamentally social
and creative. It implies that humans are naturally inclined to engage in cooperative activities
that allow for the expression of their creativity and individuality. By Marx, labor shall be a
way for workers to reflect their personal expression and intelligence. Marx’s criticism on
capitalism is that the way capitalists exploit workers and labor encroaches species-being of
human. In this case, products produced by workers’ labor no longer belong to them, but to
capitalists. This means that workers are no longer working for fulfillment of intelligence and
creativity and personal expression, but for an end of earning wages for survival. AT THIS
STAGE, LABOR NO LONGER REFLECTS WORKERS’ CREATIVITY AND PERSONAL
EXPRESSION.

ILLOCUTIONARY ACT
COLLECTIVE INTENTIONALITY