Reaction to Group One's Presentation

Although I have enjoyed all of the group presentations thus far, I really enjoyed group one's presentation today. I found every individual speech interesting, and was really surprised that the group members had not really discussed what they were going to say before they did it. Each speech was so different, which just serves to prove that love is not something that is easily defined. Its meaning and the feelings associated with the word are subjective. Every person's experience of love is very different.

The point that Kayla brought up about the word "love" not having a synonym is something that made me think as well. The more and more I pondered, I realised the veracity of this. There is no other word in the English language that carries the same depth of meaning. I think there are a number of reasons that there is no other word that can express the same things. Like I said before, "love" has a large multiplicity of meanings. There are numerous kinds of love, such as romantic and familial. Although each kind of love is different, they all have certain things in common, and can therefore be compiled into one category. This multiplicity makes it extremely difficult to find a word to substitute for it. Another possible explanation for the inability of another word to take its place is that although there are different kinds of love, it is extremely personal and has such specific characteristics. For one, it is very deep and true love can be felt in the very bottom of the soul. In my opinion, there is nothing else that has the same kind of control over a person and their emotions. It is a bond made between two people, and there is nobody in the world that shares the same exact bond. It is something that is extremely different than any other feeling in the world.

Moving back to the presentation as a whole, I was curious about whether or not each person was assigned a certain character from the Symposium to portray. They said that they didn't really discuss what they were going to write beforehand, but each person's speech seemed to correspond with a character from Plato's writing. Obviously the hiccups were something that they took from Plato. Although the last speaker took a "mushy" approach on love, he did not tell a story as did Alcibiades. Vernice's spoke about how love is not like a disease, and how "love-sickness" is in the mind. This speech seemed to kind of correspond with the doctor's in that it seemed to focus on the scientific and psychological aspects of love. There were other aspects of the presentation that corresponded with the writing as well.

Lastly, I liked the speech that talked about love in respect to art. The artwork that was put on the board was beautiful, and in my opinion did a great job of embodying the idea of love. It was a very interesting take on love, and one much different than mine since I am not in any way shape or form an artist.

Overall, I really enjoyed the presentation and the different ideas about love presented in them. Well done.