Assignment Task: In eight hundred words, Give your richest, fullest explanation of what you think the relationship should be between physical love and a more ideal (or spiritual) love between romantic partners or spouses. Support your position by discussing as many of the relevant materials from Weeks 1-4 as possible. You may use ideas and insights you have discussed in your previous weeks' Journal and Discussion Board assignments.
You might recall that Pausanias clearly values "heavenly" love more highly than "common love," whereas Aristophanes focuses on physical love (uniting the two parts that were severed by the gods) and Socrates envisions a hierarchy of love, in which one passes through love of physical things on one's way to the love of ideas, which he considered the highest form of love. St. Paul and Beethoven also both focus on ideal love and human brotherhood.
As part of your prewriting or planning your response, you will want to consider these questions:
1. What role does, or should, physical love play in loving relationships between romantic partners or spouses? Is it equally important to a more ideal or spiritual love? Is it less important?
2. What if, because of injury or illness, one of the romantic partners or spouses is incapable of physical love? Does that mean that a loving relationship between partners or spouses would be less fulfilling?
3. According to the materials we have studied in the first four weeks, most, if not all, of the pain in relationships comes from physical (or transient) love. Does this mean that this love should be de-emphasized in a loving relationship?
For all of the questions above, you will want to ask why or why not? Having considered these questions and others that may arise
Note: The above questions are simply meant to stimulate thought. They are not meant to be taken up mechanically in the order listed as a way of structure. Your response may well incorporate answers to these and other questions, but you should not refer directly to these questions, or, for that matter, to the assignment itself in composing your response. Rather, your response should be presented as a thesis upon which you are presenting your most considered thoughts.