VIEWS OF PLATO AND NIETZSCHE ON

LOVE, SEX AND MARRIAGE

Sr. No Roll No. Name UID Contribution

Review of Literature (No.14)
1. 32 Mudit Babel 20BA037
Nietzsche on Marriage
Review of Literature (No.9 and 10),
2. 70 Mansi Dixit 20BA084
Plato on Marriage
Review of Literature (No.13),
3. 84 Moksh Jain 20BA097
Conclusion
Abstract,
4. 113 Meher Khanna 20BA154
Review of Literature (No.5)
Abstract,
5. 121 Mayura Bhandari 20BA144 Review of Literature (No. 1, 2 and 12)
Plato on Love
Abstract,
Introduction,
6. 123 Mannat Gangoo 20BA148
Review of Literature (No.3 and 11),
Conclusion
Review of Literature (No.4),
7. 131 Muskaan Rajpal 20BA161 Nietzsche on Love
Bibliography (References)
Review of Literature (No.6),
8. 159 Meeta Patil 20BA186
Plato on Sex
Review of Literature (No.7 and 8),
9. 162 Namrata Kanal 20BA194
Nietzsche on Sex
ABSTRACT
The topic for this research paper is ‘Views of Plato and Friedrich Nietzsche on love, sex and
marriage’. It describes in detail the views and ideologies of each philosopher on love, sex and
marriage, in reference to the time period they belong to as well as a contemporary point of
view.
With this we attempt to find out answers to questions like:
1. What did each philosopher try to convey through their theories?
2. Why did they have separate theories and what was goal achieved through each theory?
3. What is the accuracy of each theory and does it have any merit?
4. In this day and age is it feasible to accept any one philosopher’s views as the ultimate truth?
5. What is the classical philosophical interpretation of Plato's views on love?
6. On the whole, what are some teachings we learn from the theories of Plato and Friedrich
Nietzsche that can be imbibed in our lives?
Plato and Nietzsche had opposing but solid theories on these topics. in this paper we will try
to understand the logic behind each. In the process becoming familiar with the thought
processes of both the philosophers, which in turn will expand our knowledge and give us
additional perspective.

KEYWORDS: Plato, Nietzsche, love, sex, marriage, symposium, friendship, lover,

relationship, beauty, desires, laws

INTRODUCTION
Love, Sex and Marriage when it comes to defining them there are several definitions, have a
wide range of opinions and the topics are very subjective.
Love is a complex set of emotions that cannot be fully expressed but that is where one person
has the strongest feelings of love, protection, warmth, and respect for another person.
Marriage, also known as matrimony, is the process by which two people make their
relationship public and official. It’s an institution recognized by the state, a religious
organization or a community, and usually a prerequisite for society to acknowledge sexual
relations amongst the couple. It is the joining of two people in a bond that supposedly lasts
until death. Generally, the couple signs a legal document to make their relationship legal.
Though they are popular ideas but ultimately they are ideas and they change with
circumstances and people. We have taken two philosophers who have had a great influence
on Western philosophy: Plato and Friedrich Nietzsche.
Plato is an ancient Greek philosopher, student of Socrates, and a teacher of Aristotle. His
writings explored various aspects of beauty, equality and justice. Most of his work contained
discussions on philosophy of beauty, politics, theology, cosmology and epistemology. He
founded a school of learning, spending most of his last years at the Academy with his writings.
His work covered a wide range of interests and ideas: mathematics, science and nature and
ethics.
Friedrich Nietzsche was a German philosopher, journalist, and cultural critic. His writings
included various topics such as truth, morality, language, art, history, nihilism, power,
knowledge, and the meaning of life that had a profound effect on Western philosophy and
intellectual history. One of his famous statements - 'God is dead' is the rejection of Christianity
as a logical force in modern life. Some of his works were aimed to achieve self-perfection via
the means of a creative drive called "super-man" or "over-man" (Übermensch), a man who
strives to exist above the ordinary categories of good and evil, king and slaves.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE
1. Philosophy of Love by Lee Pearlman (2013)

In this paper, Professor Lee Pearlman provides a detailed comparison between 3 different
forms of love: Agape, Eros and Philia.
Pearlman analyses the work of 3 authors - Scott Peck (Agape), Plato (Eros) and Martin Buber
(Philia).

Peck argues that agapic love is permanent, deep and fosters another beings’ spiritual growth.
It is the love between a mother and her child, where she pours her love into her child, asking
for nothing in return. Thus, making it the highest form of love.

At the other end of the spectrum is the concept of Erotic love given by Plato.
In The Symposium, Plato argues that agapic love is between a mentor, thus making him
superior to his lover; whereas an erotic lover willingly accepts his inferiority to his beloved.
He says only through Eros we can establish a relationship where the lovers acknowledge each
other’s superiority and inferiority.

Plato believes Eros is the highest form because it lets you experience beauty. Eros enables us
to alter ourselves in light of our beloved’s attributes, and attain inner beauty.

Pearlman disagrees. He thinks Plato’s views are directed towards possessed beauty and not
the individual himself, towards qualities but not the entire human.
Both Eros and Agape treat love as an “I-It” relationship when ideally it should be “I-You”. Eros
treats the beloved as an object.
Eros and Agape are unidirectional. To be loved purely erotically would mean that the beloved
gains nothing from the relationship.

Pearlman agrees with Buber - philic love treats the beloved as a ‘You’, and involves
consciousness of lover and beloved.
Philia seems like the middle ground between Agape and Eros with added consciousness from
both the beloved and the lover, making it the superior form of love.

Pearlman concludes by saying the experience of love should be so profound where lovers
desire each other’s qualities, nurture each other and recognize the other as a conscious and
irreplaceable human.

2. Lydia Amir, Plato’s theory of Love: Rationality as a Passion (2001)

The French segregated Plato’s Love into - amour platonique (non-sexual love) and amour
platonicien (love according to Plato).
Plato considers love between individuals solely as a homosexual phenomenon whereas sex
could be homosexual or heterosexual.

In The Symposium, Plato says we seek love to make us feel complete. We gravitate towards
love only when it has goodness in it. The entire universe is driven by the need to perpetually
possess ‘Good’ which Plato titled absolute beauty.

Plato says Love is a desire for immortality. To possess ‘good’ perpetually would require re-
creation. He associates Love with reproduction because through our children we remain a
part of the future perpetually.

Lydia Amir goes on to discuss how Plato’s love is predominantly intellectual. The ideal lover
suppresses emotionality by rationality. Love is defined as ‘madness’ in Phaedrus, yet
ultimately it is rational - we strive to attain wisdom to identify and appreciate beauty.

Applying Plato’s theories in the contemporary world, Lydia says that –

- Desire for immortality is the key to parental love.

- Our instinctive reaction to beauty is to take action, usually sex. But Plato says no
amount of sex can fulfil the deep longing we feel for beauty.

- We love, to fill the void in ourselves, by seeking that perfection in someone else. We
seek salvation in loving others.
But ultimately the veil of illusion will drop to show their imperfections.
You cannot expect someone else to save you. You either learn to live with the
newfound imperfect love or seek that kind of perfection elsewhere.

3. Plato on True Love by Neel Burton (2012)

Plato’s theory of love is there in Phaedrus and the Symposium. Plato is very much interested
in the same sex desire that can be between an older and a younger man, but this doesn’t
mean that his theory of love does not apply to other kinds of erotic relationships. He
distinguished between two kinds of love: love that can give rise to friendship and a baser kind
of love that is enjoyed by those who are more given to the body than to the soul.

He says that the lover is happiest when he is with his beloved and sad when they both are
separated. By being separated, the parts are going to die from which the lover’s wings grow
and he faces the intense pain which makes him prize his beloved above everyone else, makes
him unable to think a bad thought about him and let alone to betray or forsake him.

In Phaedrus, Plato emphasizes the connection that love has to the divine, hence to the eternal
and infinite and in the Symposium, he emphasizes more on the connection that has the
practice of philosophy, the search for happiness and the contemplation of truth.

There is a term known as ‘Platonic love’ which is named after Plato which means a type of
love, or close relationship that is not romantic. He has also given a concept known as Ladder
of Love. It says each step nearer to truth further distances love from the physical attributes
of the body, towards love that is more focused on knowledge and therefore essence of
beauty.
4. Nietzsche on Love by Willow Verkerk (2014)

In this article, Professor Willow Verkerk considers Friedrich Nietzsche’s take on love in
reference to his book The Gay Science (Die fröhliche Wissenschaft, 1882).

In his book (section 14, The things people call love), Nietzsche equates romantic and erotic
conceptions of love to egoistic tendencies by calling them ‘the most ingenuous expression of
egoism’. He challenges the idea of love by proposing it is close to lust for possession and the
socialization of such biological drives leads to prejudice against women and their
psychological suffering (71).

Nietzsche emphasizes the difference between the masculine and feminine expressions of love
by saying that women want to surrender and be taken as a possession while men have a
possessive thirst for power (363). Fidelity, he notes, is not a requisite of masculine love but
can become one over time due to gratitude or specific preferences.

While Nietzsche’s ideas of gender roles in love were controversial, he does offer
commiseration to women for having to act out certain behaviour patterns in order to win the
affections of a man (aphorisms 60, 70 and 74, The Gay Science).

Although he does not make any statements on how one should love, he does discuss the
impact erotic and romantic relationships have on women and the quandary they find
themselves exposed to and makes his readers introspect the roles they play in love and what
they expect in return.

5. Nietzsche’s Reflections on Love by Kathleen O' Dwyer (2008)

An internet journal of philosophy covers up all the reflections of love that are viewed by
Friedrich Nietzsche.
This paper acknowledges Nietzsche's focus on self-analysis, self-centeredness and
introspection. This journal includes the essential prerequisites to mutuality, intimacy, love of
oneself and the love of other's life. The main focus in this paper is on ‘love of wisdom’.

Nietzsche, as a philosopher, has a unique approach to discuss love. He views the enjoyment
of life, the inevitable corollary of amor fati, or it can be called as love for oneself and others
holds the most importance in a human being's life.

Nietzsche's writings revolutionize self and others, morals and values. It also says that the
concept of love is the central element of human beings.

6. The Musical Structure of Plato’s dialogues by J. B. Kennedy (2011)

Plato is widely believed to have aversive beliefs towards sex. He looks at almost all sexual acts
be it homosexual or otherwise through an antipathetic lens. Amidst this firm belief of Plato’s
hatred towards sex interpreted by several historians, J.B Kennedy has decided to deviate from
the path of inferring Plato’s beliefs simply based on his superficial texts. In this book, he
attempts to look beyond the mere letters of the Greek alphabet.
J. B Kennedy argues that Plato wrote his writings in a harmonic sequence of twelve notes,
when divided ‘musically’ a symbolic passage seems to appear at the end of each section
marked with a musical note. Dr Kennedy seems to have ‘cracked the code’ within Plato’s texts.

This decryption of his writings has revealed that Plato never advocated Platonic Love but
rather followed a middle path where he denounced both promiscuity and abstinence. It is
believed that Plato was a revolutionary when it came to romance where he changed the view
of sex as something that was a means of simply producing heirs to seeing it as a spiritual force
that helps one form the deepest most intimate bonds.

In his story where Socrates famously resists the temptation of a sought after sex symbol of
their time, Plato emphasizes showing how true love is concerned with the soul of a human
and not the body which was misinterpreted by several historians as him having anti-sex ideals
and hence giving birth to the myth of ‘Platonic Love’. Whereas the evidence suggests that he
openly celebrated eroticism and homosexuality and much like the majority of the Greek
population equated naked bodies as a symbol of beauty.

Later, Socrates was executed for corrupting the youth’s minds with immoral ideas and views
about sex so it can be inferred that Plato, fearing the same fate, hid behind these musical
notes to impart his authentic beliefs that were apparent only to those with the knowledge of
obsolete Greek mathematics

In The Symposium contexts that deal with trading sex with profit are marked with dissonant
notes which signifies his disapproval whereas areas where erotic passion birthed by simply
unconditional love for another person are marked with the most harmonic notes which
displays a belief of acceptance towards sex.

Although there are a few limitations to the theory which may render Dr Kennedy’s studies
unpersuasive, if true, we can truly understand why Plato is regarded as the Einstein of
Greece’s Golden Age.

7. Relationship Tips from the Maverick Philosopher that Never Found Love by Jeff Mann
(2015)

According to Nietzsche, there is no higher relationship in the world more important than
friendship. Friendship is the basis of all relationships. If you want to marry the love of your
life, it must be your best friend otherwise that love won't be for life but a part of it. The vows
to love forever in a marriage are basically a lie since romantic love doesn't last forever, also
the custom of marrying to have a family or to have kids is a roadblock in having a future of
superhuman.

Having kids with the motive of giving birth to exceptional kids is more appropriate to
Nietzsche rather than the wish of having kids with the ‘love’ of your life. He also says that men
as opposed to women in a marriage are only content when they face hardships in it, an easy-
going marriage is the starting point to a failed marriage.
8. Nietzsche on Love from Philosophize This! by Stephen West (2016)

Hearing all the views of various philosophers on love one thing that can be clearly stated is
that, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”, what I mean by this quote is each sees love as to
the culture they were born in, according to the experiences of love they were confronted
within their life. Love is a very diverse concept and Nietzsche's views on love is one of my
favourites. How love isn't just being selfless but also being an equal amount of greedy, they
are the same in the concept of love.

When we love someone selflessly we are also greedy for receiving the same kind of love in
return from them. If the love and affection isn't reciprocated it just becomes another dead
end relationship on the verge of breakage, even though Nietzsche is highly misunderstood.

9. Platonic Love: The Theoretical Component: In Defense of Plato, Ronald Levinson.

Chp.5 (1953)

This paper compares the philosophy of sex and marriage by different philosophers. However,
the main focus of this paper is in defence of Plato specially and further compares his views
and philosophies with the other Athenian philosophers such as Socrates, Pythagoras, Spartan,
etc.

This paper elaborates on Plato almost as a social revolutionary with the traditionalist
elements in him dwindling to vestigial proportions. In his books, Plato has, both in The
Republic and in The Laws, advocated smashing the old frame of feminine seclusion and
subordination.

This paper acknowledges Plato as he was the first great thinker to lend his intelligence to the
furtherance of her claims to be recognized as man's all but fully equal partner in every human
and rational enterprise and finally lead subjecting her to the far more uniform and equable
direction of the laws. He wishes to submit her to the civilizing influence of education and even
participate in training for defensive war, to hold a position in the public office, etc.

This paper also talks about homosexual love, marriages and the dominance of males in a
marriage system. It concludes that if we examine Plato’s work we realise that he was a man
of deep integrity, one of the supreme masters of the poetry of thought and a great thinker.

10. The marriage laws in Plato’s Republic by G. M. A. Grube (1927)

This research paper analyses Plato’s book The Republic and helps us to understand the
difficult and apparently inconsistent regulations by which certain marriages are forbidden in
the Republic have not, it would seem, been explained hitherto. The main purpose of this text
is to prove that if we read Plato's text without prejudice it helps us to recognize marriages
between brothers and sisters are nowhere prohibited, but expressly allowed; It interprets the
laws and regulations mentioned briefly that Plato has already made clear.
11. Marriage and Domestic Partnership by Elizabeth Brake (2009)

Plato's view of marriage was unusual, quite different from the original concept of marriage.
According to his portrayal of a favourable situation, the state should be vigilant and have the
power to control human production.
According to the philosophy of eugenics, temporary marriages will be arranged in a ceremony,
in which case the same will be chosen by the elected Officials. Plato understood that this was
not going to be accepted by the common people, so it was done in secret.
In Plato's Republic, a numerical system was set up in which your spouse could be selected by
selecting a "marriage number." In this sense, people with similar characteristics will be
compared to be able to reproduce. Everyone chooses the names from the lot and the partner
they find is chosen by God Himself and if you draw a blank you are considered unworthy of
interest.
Plato also demanded that the child be taken from the biological parents and that they be
raised in a foster home. Plato's reason for reorganizing the marriage was to eradicate the idea
of a private family and to give power to the state, to weaken personal interests and to
promote the common good, and to increase power in government. The reason was that it
also improved people's conditions, the idea behind it was that if people with good qualities
were raised then the result could also be good.
However, Plato realized his mistake, ignoring the fact that the natural affection a parent can
have for his child and the feelings associated with it. Plato had thought that family love could
be extended to other citizens. Plato himself did not marry. He viewed marriage as a means to
an end.

12. Nietzsche’s Conception of Friendship – Ryan Kinsella, 2007

In this paper, Ryan Kinsella begins by elaborating on Nietzsche’s view on friendship. According
to Nietzsche, friendship is a relationship with multiple forms of interactions ranging from
casual, playful somber, aggravating etc.
Although this concept has a myriad of emotions, each different and at times conflicting the
previous one, it still holds a lot of importance in Nietzsche’s philosophy. He holds it in great
regard because he believes it is the only path to becoming of Übermensch (superior man).
Nietzsche and Aristotle agree that friends help improve each other morally.
Nietzsche’s views on friendship aren’t necessarily ‘orthodox’, he strongly emphasizes that one
must show self-interest and criticism, and upon inspection if the friendship causes harm, one
must let it go.
Nietzsche being a naturalist, called human being an animal that has evolved out of a more
primitive animal. Social relations such as friendship play an important role and help us
develop into humans.
In Nietzsche’s own words, a good friendship causes us ‘to stir’ and ‘honestly re-examine
ourselves’.
In the contemporary world, we observe that a couple get married because they complement
each other and lead their significant other to better themselves in ways the other didn’t know.
Nietzsche says we can and should achieve this in friendships too.
He did not believe that one must be joined in matrimony or have an intimate relationship, to
have or achieve some meaning in life. But if a pre-existing friendship developed into
something more that would result in marriage, Nietzsche said that would provide a strong
foundation to a long lasting commitment.

13. Ten tips for a great marriage according to Friedrich Nietzsche by Skye Nettleton (2009)

In the abstract, the author tells us about how friendship is the highest form of love.
In the introduction, Nietzsche explains that in his time men were warriors & women were for
recreation. Nietzsche encourages humans to become Übermensch (super men). In the article,
the author points out Nietzsche's ten ideas to make marriages great, as follows:

Don't marry for love: Nietzsche advises the lovers to ask themselves whether they would still
enjoy talking to their partner at an old age.. He believes that being interested in one another
is more important to the success of a relationship than being attracted to each other.

Make super babies: He says that it is the individual's greatest self-respect not to marry for
love, but in order to create strong, healthy, well-educated child.

Never promise everlasting love: Nietzsche argues that love is an involuntary feeling and a
promise should not be made based on something that one cannot control.

Try serial monogamy: To avoid the problems of the temporary nature of romantic love
relationships, he suggests people go for short-term marriages.

Make it work: As the name suggests, Nietzsche asks lovers to run a trial before the marriage
to avoids any future regrets.

Give her a baby: Nietzsche interprets, I personally do not vouch for it, that everything about
a woman is a great mystery or a riddle and for that to solve the only solution is pregnancy; he
says that it is the only reason that a woman needs a man for.

Get a little action on the side: Nietzsche assumes that men naturally need sex more than
woman do so men should find a "concubine"(natural assistant") to reduce wife's stress, which
I feel is contradictory.

Let him suffer: It is seen that women naturally want peace & comfort whereas men welcome
challenges and obstacles.

Take a whip to her: Here, Nietzsche didn't mean any kind of physical violence but by whip he
meant that one or both lovers to preserve distance from one another, in order to avoid
forgetting their individuality.

Marry your best friend: For Nietzsche, Friendship is the "ultimate ideal" of affection. He
challenges all of us to be better friends. He urges lovers to try to not get caught up in power
games, instead to help each other find the path to become an Übermensch.

To conclude, I personally think Nietzsche's ideas about marriage are more relevant yet some
are ironical. For example, he holds an orthodox image of how women only want men for
reproduction. Nietzsche did not have it all worked out as he refers to woman as a "Riddle".
He gives us ideas how great loving relationships are and it is not always impossible, one is
very lucky to have one.
14. On the Difficult Case of Loving Life: Plato’s Symposium and Nietzsche’s Eternal Recurrence

A very important text has been overlooked in the given article which deals with
interpretations of eternal recurrences. Nietzsche has always emphasized true love as a means
to end and has always believe that two people always inspire each other of they have true
love. Even here Nietzsche’s agrees with Plato’s Symposium, for which love means wanting to
possess a good forever and never to lose it. Even if they lose the good somehow, they should
show the love for their good by other forms of human actions.
Nietzsche’s vision on highest affirmation coincides with Plato’s Symposium results in a very
different angle for eternal recurrence which is not generally presented in any other ideas. In
Aristophanes’ reflection in the Symposium of love it is considered that finding true love is like
finding our other half. The person who completes us, who thinks like us and have similar
interests like us. It is argued in the vision that love is just not about sex, as argued in
Aristophanes’ speech that when genitals of people were put behind them, people would just
hug each other till death, but when they were brought in their correct places, people would
just have sex and then move on that’s why Plato ’s Symposium deals with finding our other
half which completes us and not just fulfils our desires.
When Nietzsche fell in love with the mountains of Sills Maria, it was at that point when he
thought he had thought about one of his greatest works which started with just one simple
line which was, if a demon asks me to live my life again and again with the same level of
happiness and pain, shall I agree to the demon or curse him? That’s how Nietzsche came to
the idea that as how a pianist improvises to a rhythm, even we should live our lives happily,
love truly so that we are delighted to live our lives again and again with the same level of joy
which is eternal recurrence.
After looking at the visions of Nietzsche’ and Plato’s Symposium, it can be concluded that a
person should live a life and love in such a way that even if they are asked to live the same
lives again and again, it should give them eternal joy every time to live it and love in such a
way that it is just not associated with flings but finding a person who joyfully completes us
and inspires us throughout. As very rightly pointed by Nietzsche “what doesn’t kill us only
makes us stronger”.

LOVE
Plato’s views on Love
Plato’s views on love can be seen in his philosophical texts – Plato’s Symposium1 and
Phaedrus2. Although he never explicitly named them, but his views on love are what we refer
to as ‘Platonic love’ today. Platonic love refers to a kind of love which is not sexual in nature.
Plato regarded it as the highest form of love to exist.
In the Symposium, the discourse begins by describing 2 kinds of love: love which is associated
with Aphrodite (earthly and shallow love, attraction to a person’s physical beauty) and Dione
(divine/heavenly love). Heavenly love isn’t shallow and is mutual between two lovers. This

1
Plato’s Symposium is a collection of speeches given by notable men from history, but the dialogues in itself are
fictional, written by Plato
2
Phaedrus is another fictional dialogue occurring between Socrates and Phaedrus.
kind of love makes you act virtuously for each other’s sake and in turn promotes individual
growth.
Plato compared this love to the love between an older man and a younger man. Where young
men turn to older men seeking guidance, and in turn older men get companionship, the
opportunity to guide them and mold them into fine men.
“The love of man to woman is common, but true friendship between man and man is infinite
and immortal.”
Plato believed that the love found amongst lovers transcends human existence, is eternal and
leads us to a higher truth.

He also introduced the concept of ‘Ladder of Love’ under the teachings of Diotima, spoken by
Socrates in The Symposium. The ladder is a metaphor for the stages of love, consisting of 6
stages, each stage higher and more profound than the previous.
The order of ascension is: ‘Love for physical attributes’, ‘Love for all bodies’, ‘Love for the
soul’, ‘Love for laws’, ‘Love for knowledge’, and ultimately ‘Love for love itself’.
When one learns to love for love itself, they can truly appreciate the beauty in this world. Not
only the physical but spiritual beauty too.

In Phaedrus, Plato via Socrates says that ‘Love is a divine madness bestowed upon humans by
Gods’. Socrates argues that the blessing of love is the best thing a divine entity could shower
upon us. A person inflicted with this madness, driven by his love for beauty is referred to as a
lover. And when the lover finds someone who possesses this beauty, everything else is
forgotten. The lover submits his entire self to this love.
Plato concludes that love which is a combination of desire and friendship, transcends human
existence and leads us to the eternal truth.

Nietzsche’s views on Love

As unconventional and misunderstood as he was, Friedrich Nietzsche’s (1844-1900)
philosophy of love and companionship was reasonably pragmatic. The German philosopher,
like a lot of modern-day romantics, believed that it is not actually the lack of love that makes
relationships unhappy but the lack of friendship. He wrote that romantic love was fleeting
and friendship is the highest form of love there is. Even in marriage, Nietzsche believed that
physical and sexual attraction only go so far because Sex, he believed, often put couples at
odds with each other. The power dynamic, according to him, was nothing more than
conscious efforts to dominate each other.
Emphasizing on the importance of true love through friendship, Nietzsche warns lovers that
even the most beautiful faces change with time. Hence, one must choose a partner based on
not only their physical features but also their mind, beliefs and passions.
Nietzsche wrote that love, whether given or received, is not the cure to pain and suffering as
seems to be the popular belief. If you are loved by someone, you are constantly burdened
with the pressure of maintaining the love. On the contrary, if you are not loved, you carry that
pain for the rest of your life. He believed that the right thing to do was to go on living because
life will be full of burdens irrespective of the presence of love (Friedrich Nietzsche in his book
Human, All Too Human, published 1878). While he believed that romantic love came with its
own share of suffering, he was not opposed to the idea of such suffer. He said that to love
was to suffer and sickness only makes a person stronger. It was, in fact, Nietzsche who first
said, “What doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger.” (Twilight of the Idols, section Maxims
and Arrows, 1888)
Thus Spoke Zarathustra (Friedrich Nietzsche, 1883) mentions how men often believe that in
the power struggle of love they should emerge victorious. Love is commonly juxtaposed with
war because men wanted to make their wife conform and leave behind her individuality in
order to become the person they want her to be. However, Nietzsche was against the
subjugation of women by men in the name of love. Instead, he said that a man in love must
overcome himself in order to make his wife happy.

SEX
Plato’s views on Sex
Plato is better known for his disdain for sexual desires than his professed love for sex as is
evident from the term Platonic Love. He surprisingly approached modern subjects about sex
such as pornography, ethics of non-consensual sex, genetic engineering, seduction and
several others in his dialogues. His persistent interest towards sex can be explained with the
fact that it is tied to themes very close to Plato’s heart: autonomy and power.
In his early Socratic works Plato portrays the belief that humans have the power to master
lust and hence control their own fates. However, an overview of his following work explores
a pattern of increasingly pessimistic views towards sexual intimacy and human desires.
The Greeks perceived homosexual relationships as the intimacy between a lover and a
beloved3. Plato strongly objected to the moral implications of such a relationship. He argued
about the lack of autonomy in such relations due to an imbalance in power dynamics. He
believed it creates an obstruction in the partners’ personal and intellectual development. He
is of the viewpoint that only certain people can be trained to keep their sexuality under
control and the only way to achieve that is to separate sexual desire from love (Symposium).
In both Phaedrus and Symposium, Plato severely critiques Athenian male relationships and
similar viewpoints can be seen in Republic wherein he writes about men becoming enslaved
to their sexuality. According to him the ideal life is devoid of carnal desires, greed and
exuberant passion. The philosophical life of contemplation is the ultimate happiest life which
is truly free (Republic). Plato believes that the flesh is problematic and carnal desire is an
unfortunate condition of human life (Santas, 73-74).
In his last dialogue, the Laws, Plato believes that the only acceptable form of sexual relations
are the ones intended to reproduce and the power of lust should be feared by all. In contrast
with his previous works he displays utter antipathy towards sexual desires and views love as
a negative construct and renders it as a weakness.

Nietzsche’s views on Sex

Sex is the physical act of loving someone. Friedrich Nietzsche had some strong, and
controversial to today’s context of sex, views on it.

3
The relationship is ideally mutually beneficial where in the lover has the pleasure of sensuality and gallantry,
while the beloved is improved by his intimacy with a partner of greater sophistication and wisdom
Sex as a form of love is deemed to be a mere necessity by Nietzsche. Nietzsche’s sexual life,
from what we know was pretty non-existent. He was rejected by Lou Salome, a psychoanalyst,
thrice. Nietzsche also had very different ideas on how sex affects different relationships.
According to him erotic or sexual love acts as a barrier between two friends, it acts as a
hindrance in friendship. Sexually active couples often tend to fight a lot, based on Nietzsche,
it is just a basic instinct to show superiority and dominate your partner.
Sex as an education was given a weightage, he emphasized on the need of both male and
female to have and acquire sex education before taking part in any sexual activity. In case of
consummating sex Nietzsche empathizes with women, on how they are initially made to feel
insecure in their own body and then encouraged to do all the things they were once taught
were wrong. He feels sex to be psychologically traumatic for women upon marrying. Losing
virginity in those times was considered a shameful act for women, which Nietzsche says is due
to lack of sex education.

MARRIAGE
Plato’s views on Marriage
The ancient and medieval philosophers contributed in the recurring theme of the philosophy
of marriage such as the relation between the male and female in a marriage, the role of sex
and procreation in a marriage. The work of philosophers reflects evolving ideas of marriage
as an economic unit, a contractual association, a religious and a spiritual sacrament, etc.

The views of Plato (427–347 BCE) in marriage and its cross references are almost always vague
and he describes marriage and its laws in the most general terms. He states that, just as both
the male and female watch dogs perform the same duties, they should work together, and,
among the guardians, wife and their children [should be held] in common. (The Republic, ca.
375–370 BCE, 423e–424a).

The unions in which the guardians are permitted to engage, are in the highest degree
impersonal and all is straightforwardly directed towards the public interest. Plato states that
in the case of an heiress who has no kinsman securable she can choose her own husband.
Once married, the woman in the usual case stays with her husband for life; there are no
temporary marriages. The new young couple are meant to live alone in their own house. It is
the wife's duty to set an example to the slave women of her household and to manage this
household well, in addition to performing all her civic duties. If what Plato considers the best
law for the regulation of sex is adopted, husband and his wife will both be obligated
permanently to abstain from all other sexual relationships; Plato hopes to secure that the
union will be on the best of terms with one another.

He assumed that by making the laws and the limits of the marriage wider and vaguer he would
achieve unity by means of relationships so intertwined as to be intricate yet involving. There
are many interpretations of Plato and his views on marriage. But, one can only interpret his
views on marriage by reading the Republic or by the work of the other authors.

Nietzsche’s views on Marriage

When it comes to getting relationship advice, Nietzsche may be described as one of the most
disqualified persons since he was not able to find love his entire life. Although all his marriage
proposals were turned down, in spite of this Nietzsche views on love have impacted the
thinking of many thinkers and philosophers in the 20 th century.
Nietzsche always credited a great value to friendship; he thought it as a relationship where
two people continue to advise each other through their entire life. Nietzsche believed that
marriage was not a small thing which could be fulfilled just by love, according to him people
should:
1. Not marry just for looks: Nietzsche believed that one should not marry the other
person just for good looks. What would you do when your significant other grew old,
got wrinkles and did not retain their youthful look? That’s why he believed true
friendship between the partners was more important than looks in order for the
marriage to last.
2. Marry your best friend: Nietzsche believed that one person should always marry their
best friend. According to him true friendship is like the foundation for true love as true
friends always support, admire and help each other their entire lives.
3. Never promise everlasting love: According to Nietzsche one should never promise
everlasting love to anyone.
Instead they should promise each other that ‘till the time they love each other, people
should render true actions of love and if they cease to love each other at any point,
then also they should promise each other the same actions through other human
motives’.
4. Marry to make super babies: Nietzsche believed that one should not only marry to
make babies, but people should marry to make super babies; which is not just
increasing the population, but making such babies which are different from the
population.
He didn’t keep marriage as a necessary condition for procreating, but it provides a
good foundation for kids and makes them strong, healthy and well-educated.

To conclude, Nietzsche always put true friendship as the basis of a successful marriage where
both partners always inspire and admire each other.
He believed that temporary or romantic love was not enough for a successful marriage, but a
relationship where both the partners mutually inspire each other was much more important.

CONCLUSION
Plato’s view with Nietzsche view differed in many ways. While Plato believed in same sex love
and homosexuality, Nietzsche gave importance to friendship. Plato’s accepted sexual activity
only with the intention to reproduce while Nietzsche believed that any sexual activity acts as
a hindrance in friendship. Nietzsche held that feelings of attraction and sexual desire wouldn’t
last long and thus marriages would fail while Plato’s views on marriage were vague and
describe marriage and its laws in the most general terms. Nietzsche also believed that erotic
love is a desire to acquire. The social idea of platonic love is explained along with the
description of Plato’s Symposium which shows the perspectives he has for love. The paper
has a wide explanation of the Greek culture to which they belonged which includes the
mention of incest marriages and homosexuality. Nietzsche explains love via his concept of
Amor Fati or "love of fate". Also, he never goes in-depth about what he thinks of love.
Overall, there are a lot of aspects from both their theories that stand true and can be used in
today’s contemporary world, but we cannot just choose one theory and consider it the
absolute truth. Briefly, there are a lot of things about the two most famous philosophers that
the entire group learned a lot about.

REFERENCES
1. Pearlman, L., 2013. Philosophy of Love. Ph.D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
2. Amir, L., 2001. Plato's Theory of Love: Rationality as a Passion. Tufts University.
3. Burton, N., 2012. Plato on True Love. [Blog] Psychology Today, Available at:
<https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/hide-and-seek/201206/plato-true-
love> [Accessed 14 August 2021].
4. Verkerk, W., 2014. Nietzsche on Love. Philosophy Now, [online] Available at:
<https://philosophynow.org/issues/104/Nietzsche_on_Love> [Accessed 14 August
2021].
5. O'Dwyer, K., 2008. Nietzsche’s Reflections on Love. Mary Immaculate College.
6. Kennedy, J., 2014. The Musical Structure of Plato's Dialogues. Hoboken: Taylor and
Francis.
7. Mann, J., 2015. Relationship Tips from the Maverick Philosopher who Never Found
Love. Brain Fodder, [online] Available at: <https://brainfodder.org/nietzsche-
marriage-relationships/> [Accessed 14 August 2021].
8. West, S., 2016. Episode #094 ... Nietzsche pt. 4 - Love. [video] Available at:
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57igoocbksA> [Accessed 14 August 2021].
9. Levinson, R., 1953. In Defense of Plato. p.Chapter 5.
10. Grube, G., 1927. The Marriage Laws in Plato's Republic. M.A. Cambridge University.
11. Brake, E., 2009. Marriage and Domestic Partnership. Ph.D. Rice University.
12. Kinsella, R., 2007. Nietzsche's Conception of Friendship. M.Phil. University of Notre
Dame.
13. Nettleton, S., 2009. Ten Tips For A Great Marriage According to Friedrich Nietzsche.
Macquarie University Graduate School of Management.
14. Shepherd, M., 2017. On the Difficult Case of Loving Life: Plato's Symposium and
Nietzsche's eternal recurrence. [Blog] Available at:
<https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09608788.2017.1420625>
[Accessed 15 August 2021].
15. Plato, P., n.d. Symposium.
16. Plato., n.d. Phaedrus.
17. WordPress, 2018. What Did Plato Say About Love?. Available at:
<https://neologikonblog.wordpress.com/tag/what-did-plato-say-about-love/>
[Accessed 14 August 2021].
18. Mabolock, C., 2018. Nietzsche on Love. [Blog] Inquirer, Available at:
<https://opinion.inquirer.net/111016/nietzsche-on-love/amp> [Accessed 14 August
2021].
19. Nietzsche, F., n.d. Human, all too human.
 20. Nietzsche, F., 1974. Twilight of the idols. New York: Gordon Press.
21. Nietzsche, F., n.d. Thus Spoke Zarathustra.
22. Halwani, R., 2018. Sex and Sexuality. Ph. D. School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
23. Martin, A., 2018. The Routledge handbook of love in philosophy. 1st ed. Routledge,
p.Jeremy Reid's Chapter - Plato on Love and Sex.
24. Odia, S., 2015. The Antinomies of Human Sexuality in Plato. Ph.D. University of Benin.
25. Gillis, M. and Jacobs, A., n.d. Introduction to women's and gender studies.
26. Reeser, Todd. Setting Plato Straight. Amsterdam, Netherlands, Amsterdam
University Press, 2016.
27. Sandford, Stella. Plato and Sex. Polity Press, 2010.
28. Soble, Alan. Sex from Plato to Paglia: A Philosophical Encyclopedia, Volume I: A-L.
Greenwood, 2005.
29. Santas, Gerasimos. Plato and Freud: Two Theories of Love. 1st ed., Basil Blackwell,
1988.
30. Haworth, A., 2011. More sex please, we're Greek: Exposing the myth of platonic
love. [Blog] Available at: <https://www.manchester.ac.uk/discover/news/more-sex-
please-were-greek-exposing-the-myth-of-platonic-love/> [Accessed 14 August 2021].
31. Kuzma, J., 2016. The eroticization of distance.

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Love, Sex and Marriage when it comes to defining them there are several definitions, have a wide range of opinions
and the topics are very subjective. 
Love is a complex set of emotions that cannot be fully expressed but that is where one person has the strongest
feelings of love, protection, warmth, and respect for another person. 
Marriage, also known as matrimony, is the process by which two people make their relationship public and official. It’s
an institution recognized by the state, a religious organization or a community, and usually a prerequisite for society to
acknowledge sexual relations amongst the couple. It is the joining of two people in a bond that supposedly lasts until
death. Generally, the couple signs a legal document to make their relationship legal. Though they are popular ideas but
ultimately they are ideas and they change with circumstances and people. We have taken two philosophers who have
had a great influence on Western philosophy: Plato and Friedrich Nietzsche.
Plato is an ancient Greek philosopher, student of Socrates, and a teacher of Aristotle. His writings explored various
aspects of beauty, equality and justice. Most of his work contained discussions on philosophy of beauty, politics,
theology, cosmology and epistemology. He founded a school of learning, spending most of his last years at the
Academy with his writings. His work covered a wide range of interests and ideas: mathematics, science and nature and
ethics.
Friedrich Nietzsche was a German philosopher, journalist, and cultural critic. His writings included various topics such
as truth, morality, language, art, history, nihilism, power, knowledge, and the meaning of life that had a profound effect
on Western philosophy and intellectual history. One of his famous statements ­ 'God is dead' is the rejection of
Christianity as a logical force in modern life. Some of his works were aimed to achieve self­perfection via the means of
a creative drive called "super­man" or "over­man" (Übermensch), a man who strives to exist above the ordinary
categories of good and evil, king and slaves.In this paper, Professor Lee Pearlman provides a detailed comparison
between 3 different forms of love: Agape, Eros and Philia.
Pearlman analyses the work of 3 authors ­ Scott Peck (Agape), Plato (Eros) and Martin Buber (Philia).
Peck argues that agapic love is permanent, deep and fosters another beings’ spiritual growth. 
It is the love between a mother and her child, where she pours her love into her child, asking for nothing in return. Thus,
making it the highest form of love.
At the other end of the spectrum is the concept of Erotic love given by Plato. 
In The Symposium, Plato argues that agapic love is between a mentor, thus making him superior to his lover; whereas
an erotic lover willingly accepts his inferiority to his beloved. 
He says only through Eros we can establish a relationship where the lovers acknowledge each other’s superiority and
inferiority.
Plato believes Eros is the highest form because it lets you experience beauty. Eros enables us to alter ourselves in light
of our beloved’s attributes, and attain inner beauty.
Pearlman disagrees. He thinks Plato’s views are directed towards possessed beauty and not the individual himself,
towards qualities but not the entire human. 
Both Eros and Agape treat love as an “I­It” relationship when ideally it should be “I­You”. Eros treats the beloved as an
object. 
Eros and Agape are unidirectional. To be loved purely erotically would mean that the beloved gains nothing from the
Eros and Agape are unidirectional. To be loved purely erotically would mean that the beloved gains nothing from the
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relationship. 
Pearlman agrees with Buber ­ philic love treats the beloved as a ‘You’, and involves consciousness of lover and
beloved.
Philia seems like the middle ground between Agape and Eros with added consciousness from both the beloved and the
lover, making it the superior form of love.
Pearlman concludes by saying the experience of love should be so profound where lovers desire each other’s qualities,
nurture each other and recognize the other as a conscious and irreplaceable human. The French segregated Plato’s
Love into ­ amour platonique (non­sexual love) and amour platonicien (love according to Plato).
Plato considers love between individuals solely as a homosexual phenomenon whereas sex could be homosexual or
heterosexual.
In The Symposium, Plato says we seek love to make us feel complete. We gravitate towards love only when it has
goodness in it. The entire universe is driven by the need to perpetually possess ‘Good’ which Plato titled absolute
beauty.

Plato says Love is a desire for immortality. To possess ‘good’ perpetually would require re­creation. He associates Love
with reproduction because through our children we remain a part of the future perpetually. 
Lydia Amir goes on to discuss how Plato’s love is predominantly intellectual. The ideal lover suppresses emotionality by
rationality. Love is defined as ‘madness’ in Phaedrus, yet ultimately it is rational ­ we strive to attain wisdom to identify
and appreciate beauty. 
Applying Plato’s theories in the contemporary world, Lydia says that – 
­ Desire for immortality is the key to parental love.
­ Our instinctive reaction to beauty is to take action, usually sex. But Plato says no amount of sex can fulfil the deep
longing we feel for beauty.
­ We love, to fill the void in ourselves, by seeking that perfection in someone else. We seek salvation in loving others. 
But ultimately the veil of illusion will drop to show their imperfections. 
You cannot expect someone else to save you. You either learn to live with the newfound imperfect love or seek that
kind of perfection elsewhere.Plato’s theory of love is there in Phaedrus and the Symposium. Plato is very much
interested in the same sex desire that can be between an older and a younger man, but this doesn’t mean that his
theory of love does not apply to other kinds of erotic relationships. He distinguished between two kinds of love: love that
can give rise to friendship and a baser kind of love that is enjoyed by those who are more given to the body than
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He says that the lover is happiest when he is with his beloved and sad when they both are separated. By being
separated, the parts are going to die from which the lover’s wings grow and he faces the intense pain which makes him
prize his beloved above everyone else, makes him unable to think a bad thought about him and let alone to betray or
forsake him.
In Phaedrus, Plato emphasizes the connection between love and the devine, hence to the eternal and infinite and in the
Symposium, he focusses more on the connection that involves the practice of philosophy, the search for true happiness
and the search of truth. 
There is a term known as ‘Platonic love’ which is named after Plato which means a type of love, or close relationship
that is not romantic. He has also given a concept known as Ladder of Love. It says each step nearer to truth further
distances love from the physical attributes of the body, towards love that is more focused on knowledge and therefore
essence of beauty.In this article, Professor Willow Verkerk considers Friedrich Nietzsche’s take on love in reference to
his book The Gay Science (Die fröhliche Wissenschaft, 1882). 
In his book (section 14, The things people call love), Nietzsche equates romantic and erotic conceptions of love to
egoistic tendencies by calling them ‘the most ingenuous expression of egoism’. He challenges the idea of love by
proposing it is close to lust for possession and the socialization of such biological drives leads to prejudice against
women and their psychological suffering (71). 
Nietzsche emphasizes the difference between the masculine and feminine expressions of love by saying that women
want to surrender and be taken as a possession while men have a possessive thirst for power (363). Fidelity, he notes,
is not a requisite of masculine love but can become one over time due to gratitude or specific preferences. 
While Nietzsche’s ideas of gender roles in love were controversial, he does offer commiseration to women for having to
act out certain behaviour patterns in order to win the affections of a man (aphorisms 60, 70 and 74, The Gay Science).
Although he does not make any statements on how one should love, he does discuss the impact erotic and romantic
relationships have on women and the quandary they find themselves exposed to and makes his readers introspect the
roles they play in love and what they expect in return. An internet journal of philosophy covers up all the reflections of
love that are viewed by Friedrich Nietzsche.
This paper acknowledges Nietzsche's focus on self­analysis, self­centeredness and introspection. This journal includes
the essential prerequisites to mutuality, intimacy, love of oneself and the love of other's life. The main focus in this paper
is on ‘love of wisdom’.
Nietzsche, as a philosopher, has a unique approach to discuss love. He views the enjoyment of life, the inevitable
corollary of amor fati, or it can be called as love for oneself and others holds the most importance in a human being's
life.
Nietzsche's writings revolutionize self and others, morals and values. It also says that the concept of love is the central
element of human beings.Plato is widely believed to have aversive beliefs towards sex. He looks at almost all sexual
acts be it homosexual or otherwise through an antipathetic lens. Amidst this firm belief of Plato’s hatred towards sex
interpreted by several historians, J.B Kennedy has decided to deviate from the path of inferring Plato’s beliefs simply
based on his superficial texts. In this book, he attempts to look beyond the mere letters of the Greek alphabet.

J. B Kennedy argues that Plato wrote his writings in a harmonic sequence of twelve notes, when divided ‘musically’ a
J. B Kennedy argues that Plato wrote his writings in a harmonic sequence of twelve notes, when divided ‘musically’ a
Page 2
symbolic passage seems to appear at the end of each section marked with a musical note. Dr Kennedy seems to have
‘cracked the code’ within Plato’s texts.
This decryption of his writings has revealed that Plato never advocated Platonic Love but rather followed a middle path
where he denounced both promiscuity and abstinence. It is believed that Plato was a revolutionary when it came to
romance where he changed the view of sex as something that was a means of simply producing heirs to seeing it as a
spiritual force that helps one form the deepest most intimate bonds. 
In his story where Socrates famously resists the temptation of a sought after sex symbol of their time, Plato emphasizes
showing how true love is concerned with the soul of a human and not the body which was misinterpreted by several
historians as him having anti­sex ideals and hence giving birth to the myth of ‘Platonic Love’. Whereas the evidence
suggests that he openly celebrated eroticism and homosexuality and much like the majority of the Greek population
equated naked bodies as a symbol of beauty.
Later, Socrates was executed for corrupting the youth’s minds with immoral ideas and views about sex so it can be
inferred that Plato, fearing the same fate, hid behind these musical notes to impart his authentic beliefs that were
apparent only to those with the knowledge of obsolete Greek mathematics
In The Symposium contexts that deal with trading sex with profit are marked with dissonant notes which signifies his
disapproval whereas areas where erotic passion birthed by simply unconditional love for another person are marked
with the most harmonic notes which displays a belief of acceptance towards sex. 
Although there are a few limitations to the theory which may render Dr Kennedy’s studies unpersuasive, if true, we can
truly understand why Plato is regarded as the Einstein of Greece’s Golden Age.

Sources Similarity

Nietzsche on Love | Issue 104 | Philosophy Now

Although he is not making moralising claims about how one should love, his discussion of the difficult impact erotic
and romantic relationships have on women, ... 7%
https://philosophynow.org/issues/104/Nietzsche_on_Love
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According to Nietzsche, there is no higher relationship in the world more important than friendship. Friendship is the
basis of all relationships. If you want to marry the love of your life, it must be your best friend otherwise that love won't
be for life but a part of it. The vows to love forever in a marriage are basically a lie since romantic love doesn't last
forever, also the custom of marrying to have a family or to have kids is a roadblock in having a future of superhuman. 
Having kids with the motive of giving birth to exceptional kids is more appropriate to Nietzsche rather than the wish of
having kids with the ‘love’ of your life. He also says that men as opposed to women in a marriage are only content when
they face hardships in it, an easy­going marriage is the starting point to a failed marriage. 
Hearing all the views of various philosophers on love one thing that can be clearly stated is that, “Beauty is in the eye of
the beholder”, what I mean by this quote is each sees love as to the culture they were born in, according to the
experiences of love they were confronted within their life. Love is a very diverse concept and Nietzsche's views on love
is one of my favourites. How love isn't just being selfless but also being an equal amount of greedy, they are the same
in the concept of love. 
When we love someone selflessly we are also greedy for receiving the same kind of love in return from them. If the love
and affection isn't reciprocated it just becomes another dead end relationship on the verge of breakage, even though
Nietzsche is highly misunderstood. 
This paper compares the philosophy of sex and marriage by different philosophers. However, the main focus of this
paper is in defence of Plato specially and further compares his views and philosophies with the other Athenian
philosophers such as Socrates, Pythagoras, Spartan, etc. 
This paper elaborates on Plato almost as a social revolutionary with the traditionalist elements in him dwindling to
vestigial proportions. In his books, Plato has, both in The Republic and in The Laws, advocated smashing the old frame
of feminine seclusion and subordination.
This paper acknowledges Plato as he was the first great thinker to lend his intelligence to the furtherance of her claims
to be recognized as man's all but fully equal partner in every human and rational enterprise and finally lead subjecting
her to the far more uniform and equable direction of the laws. He wishes to submit her to the civilizing influence of
education and even participate in training for defensive war, to hold a position in the public office, etc. 
This paper also talks about homosexual love, marriages and the dominance of males in a marriage system. It
concludes that if we examine Plato’s work we realise that he was a man of deep integrity, one of the supreme masters
of the poetry of thought and a great thinker.This research paper analyses Plato’s book The Republic and helps us to
understand the difficult and apparently inconsistent regulations by which certain marriages are forbidden in the
Republic have not, it would seem, been explained hitherto. The main purpose of this text is to prove that if we read
Plato's text without prejudice it helps us to recognize marriages between brothers and sisters are nowhere prohibited,
but expressly allowed; It interprets the laws and regulations mentioned briefly that Plato has already made clear.Plato's
view of marriage was unusual, quite different from the original concept of marriage. According to his portrayal of a
favourable situation, the state should be vigilant and have the power to control human production. 
According to the philosophy of eugenics, temporary marriages will be arranged in a ceremony, in which case the same
will be chosen by the elected Officials. Plato understood that this was not going to be accepted by the common people,
so it was done in secret. 
In Plato's Republic, a numerical system was set up in which your spouse could be selected by selecting a "marriage
In Plato's Republic, a numerical system was set up in which your spouse could be selected by selecting a "marriage
Page 2
number." In this sense, people with similar characteristics will be compared to be able to reproduce. Everyone chooses
the names from the lot and the partner they find is chosen by God Himself and if you draw a blank you are considered
unworthy of interest. 
Plato also demanded that the child be taken from the biological parents and that they be raised in a foster home. Plato's
reason for reorganizing the marriage was to eradicate the idea of a private family and to give power to the state, to
weaken personal interests and to promote the common good, and to increase power in government. The reason was
that it also improved people's conditions, the idea behind it was that if people with good qualities were raised then the
result could also be good. 
However, Plato realized his mistake, ignoring the fact that the natural affection a parent can have for his child and the
feelings associated with it. Plato had thought that family love could be extended to other citizens. Plato himself did not
marry. He viewed marriage as a means to an end.In this paper, Ryan Kinsella begins by elaborating on Nietzsche’s
view on friendship. According to Nietzsche, friendship is a relationship with multiple forms of interactions ranging from
casual, playful somber, aggravating etc. 
Although this concept has a myriad of emotions, each different and at times conflicting the previous one, it still holds a
lot of importance in Nietzsche’s philosophy. He holds it in great regard because he believes it is the only path to
becoming of Übermensch (superior man). Nietzsche and Aristotle agree that friends help improve each other morally.
Nietzsche’s views on friendship aren’t necessarily ‘orthodox’, he strongly emphasizes that one must show self­interest
and criticism, and upon inspection if the friendship causes harm, one must let it go. 
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Nietzsche being a naturalist, called human being an animal that has evolved out of a more primitive animal. Social
relations such as friendship play an important role and help us develop into humans.
In Nietzsche’s own words, a good friendship causes us ‘to stir’ and ‘honestly re­examine ourselves’. 
In the contemporary world, we observe that a couple get married because they complement each other and lead their
significant other to better themselves in ways the other didn’t know. Nietzsche says we can and should achieve this in
friendships too.
He did not believe that one must be joined in matrimony or have an intimate relationship, to have or achieve some
meaning in life. But if a pre­existing friendship developed into something more that would result in marriage, Nietzsche
said that would provide a strong foundation to a long lasting commitment. In the abstract, the author tells us about how
friendship is the highest form of love.
In the introduction, Nietzsche explains that in his time men were warriors & women were for recreation. Nietzsche
encourages humans to become Übermensch (super men). In the article, the author points out Nietzsche's ten ideas to
make marriages great, as follows:
Don't marry for love: Nietzsche advises the lovers to ask themselves whether they would still enjoy talking to their
partner at an old age. He believes that being interested in one another is more important to the success of a
relationship than being attracted to each other.
Make super babies: He says that it is the individual's greatest self­respect not to marry for love, but in order to create
strong, healthy, well­educated child.
Never promise everlasting love: Nietzsche argues that love is an involuntary feeling and a promise should not be made
based on something that one cannot control.
Try serial monogamy: To avoid the problems of the temporary nature of romantic love relationships, he suggests people
go for short­term marriages. 

Make it work: As the name suggests, Nietzsche asks lovers to run a trial before the marriage to avoids any future
regrets.
Give her a baby: Nietzsche interprets, I personally dont vouch for it, that everything about a woman is a great mystery
or a riddle and for that to solve the only solution is pregnancy; he says that it is the only reason that a woman needs a
man for.
Get a little action on the side: Nietzsche assumes that men naturally need sex more than woman do so men should find
a "concubine"(natural assistant") to reduce wife's stress, which I feel is contradictory.
Let him suffer: It is seen that women naturally want peace & comfort whereas men welcome challenges and obstacles.
Take a whip to her: Here, Nietzsche didn't mean any kind of physical violence but by whip he meant that one or both
lovers to preserve distance from one another, in order to avoid forgetting their individuality. 
Marry your best friend: For Nietzsche, Friendship is the "ultimate ideal" of affection. He challenges all of us to be better
friends. He urges lovers to try to not get caught up in power games, instead to help one another find the path to
become an Übermensch.
To conclude, I personally think Nietzsche's ideas about marriage are more relevant yet some are ironical. For example,
he holds an orthodox image of how women only want men for reproduction. Nietzsche did not have it all worked out as
he holds an orthodox image of how women only want men for reproduction. Nietzsche did not have it all worked out as
Page 2
he refers to woman as a "Riddle". He gives us ideas how great loving relationships are and it is not always impossible,
one is very lucky to have one.A very important text has been overlooked in the given article which deals with
interpretations of eternal resources. Nietzsche has always emphasized true love as a means to end and has always
believe that two people always inspire each other of they have true love. Even here Nietzsche’s agrees with Plato’s
Symposium, for which love means wanting to possess a good forever and never to lose it. Even if they lose the good
somehow, they should show the love for their good by other forms of human actions.
Nietzsche’s vision on highest affirmation coincides with Plato’s Symposium results in a very different angle for eternal
recurrence which is not generally presented in any other ideas. In Aristophanes’ reflection in the Symposium of love it is
considered that finding true love is like finding our other half. The person who completes us, who thinks like us and
have similar interests like us. It is argued in the vision that love is just not about sex, as argued in Aristophanes’ speech
that when genitals of people were put behind them, people would just hug each other till death, but when they were
brought in their correct places, people would just have sex and then move on that’s why Plato ’s Symposium deals with
finding our other half which completes us and not just fulfils our desires.
When Nietzsche fell in love with the mountains of Sills Maria, it was at that point when he thought he had thought about
one of his greatest works which started with just one simple line which was, if a demon asks me to live my life again
and again with the same level of happiness and pain, shall I agree to the demon or curse him? That’s how Nietzsche
came to the idea that as how a pianist improvises to a rhythm, even we should live our lives happily, love truly so that
we are delighted to live our lives again and again with the same level of joy which is eternal recurrence.

Sources Similarity

Ten Tips for a Great Marriage According to Friedrich Nietzsche

by S Nettleton ꞏ 2009 ꞏ Cited by 3 — Try Serial Monogamy. To avoid the problem of the temporary nature of
romantic love relationships, why do people not agree to short­term marriages upfront? 7%
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/20797222.2009.11433997
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After looking at the visions of Nietzsche’ and Plato’s Symposium, it can be concluded that a person should live a life
and love in such a way that even if they are asked to live the same lives again and again, it should give them eternal joy
every time to live it and love in such a way that it is just not associated with flings but finding a person who joyfully
completes us and inspires us throughout. As very rightly pointed by Nietzsche “what doesn’t kill us only makes us
stronger”.Plato’s views on Love
Plato’s views on love can be seen in his philosophical texts – Plato’s Symposium and Phaedrus . Although he never
explicitly named them, but his views on love are what we refer to as ‘Platonic love’ today. Platonic love refers to a kind
of love which is not sexual in nature. Plato regarded it as the highest form of love to exist. 
In the Symposium, the discourse begins by describing 2 kinds of love: love which is associated with Aphrodite (earthly
and shallow love, attraction to a person’s physical beauty) and Dione (divine/heavenly love). Heavenly love isn’t shallow
and is mutual between two lovers. This kind of love makes you act virtuously for each other’s sake and in turn promotes
individual growth.
Plato compared this love to the love between an older man and a younger man. Where young men turn to older men
seeking guidance, and in turn older men get companionship, the opportunity to guide them and mold them into fine
men.
“The love of man to woman is common, but true friendship between man and man is infinite and immortal.”
Plato believed that the love found amongst lovers transcends human existence, is eternal and leads us to a higher
truth.
He also introduced the concept of ‘Ladder of Love’ under the teachings of Diotima, spoken by Socrates in The
Symposium. The ladder is a metaphor for the stages of love, consisting of 6 stages, each stage higher and more
profound than the previous. 
The order of ascension is: ‘Love for physical attributes’, ‘Love for all bodies’, ‘Love for the soul’, ‘Love for laws’, ‘Love
for knowledge’, and ultimately ‘Love for love itself’. 
When one learns to love for love itself, they can truly appreciate the beauty in this world. Not only the physical but
spiritual beauty too. 
In Phaedrus, Plato via Socrates says that ‘Love is a divine madness bestowed upon humans by Gods’. Socrates
argues that the blessing of love is the best thing a divine entity could shower upon us. A person inflicted with this
madness, driven by his love for beauty is referred to as a lover. And when the lover finds someone who possesses this
beauty, everything else is forgotten. The lover submits his entire self to this love.
Plato concludes that love which is a combination of desire and friendship, transcends human existence and leads us to
the eternal truth.
Nietzsche’s views on Love
As unconventional and misunderstood as he was, Friedrich Nietzsche’s (1844­1900) philosophy of love and
companionship was reasonably pragmatic. The German philosopher, like a lot of modern­day romantics, believed that it
is not actually the lack of love that makes relationships unhappy but the lack of friendship. He wrote that romantic love
was fleeting and friendship is the highest form of love there is. Even in marriage, Nietzsche believed that physical and
sexual attraction only go so far because Sex, he believed, often put couples at odds with each other. The power
dynamic, according to him, was nothing more than conscious efforts to dominate each other. 
dynamic, according to him, was nothing more than conscious efforts to dominate each other. 
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Emphasizing on the importance of true love through friendship, Nietzsche warns lovers that even the most beautiful
faces change with time. Hence, one must choose a partner based on not only their physical features but also their
mind, beliefs and passions. 
Nietzsche wrote that love, whether given or received, is not the cure to pain and suffering as seems to be the popular
belief. If you are loved by someone, you are constantly burdened with the pressure of maintaining the love. On the
contrary, if you are not loved, you carry that pain for the rest of your life. He believed that the right thing to do was to go
on living because life will be full of burdens irrespective of the presence of love (Friedrich Nietzsche in his book Human,
All Too Human, published 1878). While he believed that romantic love came with its own share of suffering, he was not
opposed to the idea of such suffer. He said that to love was to suffer and sickness only makes a person stronger. It
was, in fact, Nietzsche who first said, “What doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger.” (Twilight of the Idols, section
Maxims and Arrows, 1888) 
Thus Spoke Zarathustra (Friedrich Nietzsche, 1883) mentions how men often believe that in the power struggle of love
they should emerge victorious. Love is commonly juxtaposed with war because men wanted to make their wife conform
and leave behind her individuality in order to become the person they want her to be. However, Nietzsche was against
the subjugation of women by men in the name of love. Instead, he said that a man in love must overcome himself in
order to make his wife happy.Plato’s views on Sex
Plato is better known for his disdain for sexual desires than his professed love for sex as is evident from the term
Platonic Love. He surprisingly approached modern subjects about sex such as pornography, ethics of non­consensual
sex, genetic engineering, seduction and several others in his dialogues. His persistent interest towards sex can be
explained with the fact that it is tied to themes very close to Plato’s heart: autonomy and power.
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In his early Socratic works Plato portrays the belief that humans have the power to master lust and hence control their
own fates. However, an overview of his following work explores a pattern of increasingly pessimistic views towards
sexual intimacy and human desires. 
The Greeks perceived homosexual relationships as the intimacy between a lover and a beloved . Plato strongly
objected to the moral implications of such a relationship. He argued about the lack of autonomy in such relations due to
an imbalance in power dynamics. He believed it creates an obstruction in the partners’ personal and intellectual
development. He is of the viewpoint that only certain people can be trained to keep their sexuality under control and the
only way to achieve that is to separate sexual desire from love (Symposium).
In both Phaedrus and Symposium, Plato severely critiques Athenian male relationships and similar viewpoints can be
seen in Republic wherein he writes about men becoming enslaved to their sexuality. According to him the ideal life is
devoid of carnal desires, greed and exuberant passion. The philosophical life of contemplation is the ultimate happiest
life which is truly free (Republic). Plato believes that the flesh is problematic and carnal desire is an unfortunate
condition of human life (Santas, 73­74).
In his last dialogue, the Laws, Plato believes that the only acceptable form of sexual relations are the ones intended to
reproduce and the power of lust should be feared by all. In contrast with his previous works he displays utter antipathy
towards sexual desires and views love as a negative construct and renders it as a weakness. 
Nietzsche’s views on Sex
Sex is the physical act of loving someone. Friedrich Nietzsche had some strong, and controversial to today’s
context of sex, views on it.
Sex as a form of love is deemed to be a mere necessity by Nietzsche. Nietzsche’s sexual life, from what we know
was pretty non­existent. He was rejected by Lou Salome, a psychoanalyst, thrice. Nietzsche also had very different
ideas on how sex affects different relationships. According to him erotic or sexual love acts as a barrier between two
friends, it acts as a hindrance in friendship. Sexually active couples often tend to fight a lot, based on Nietzsche, it is
just a basic instinct to show superiority and dominate your partner.
Sex as an education was given a weightage, he emphasized on the need of both male and female to have and acquire
sex education before taking part in any sexual activity. In case of consummating sex Nietzsche empathizes with
women, on how they are initially made to feel insecure in their own body and then encouraged to do all the things they
were once taught were wrong. He feels sex to be psychologically traumatic for women upon marrying. Losing virginity
in those times was considered a shameful act for women, which Nietzsche says is due to lack of sex education.
MARRIAGE
Plato’s views on Marriage
The ancient and medieval philosophers contributed in the recurring theme of the philosophy of marriage such as the
relation between the male and female in a marriage, the role of sex and procreation in a marriage. The work of
philosophers reflects evolving ideas of marriage as an economic unit, a contractual association, a religious and a
spiritual sacrament, etc.
The views of Plato (427–347 BCE) in marriage and its cross references are almost always vague and he describes
marriage and its laws in the most general terms. He states that, just as both the male and female watch dogs perform
the same duties, they should work together, and, among the guardians, wife and their children [should be held] in
the same duties, they should work together, and, among the guardians, wife and their children [should be held] in
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common. (The Republic, ca. 375–370 BCE, 423e–424a).
The unions in which the guardians are permitted to engage, are in the highest degree impersonal and all is
straightforwardly directed towards the public interest. Plato states that in the case of an heiress who has no kinsman
securable she can choose her own husband. Once married, the woman in the usual case stays with her husband for
life; there are no temporary marriages. The new young couple are meant to live alone in their own house. It is the wife's
duty to set an example to the slave women of her household and to manage this household well, in addition to
performing all her civic duties. If what Plato considers the best law for the regulation of sex is adopted, husband and his
wife will both be obligated permanently to abstain from all other sexual relationships; Plato hopes to secure that the
union will be on the best of terms with one another.
He assumed that by making the laws and the limits of the marriage wider and vaguer he would achieve unity by means
of relationships so intertwined as to be intricate yet involving. There are many interpretations of Plato and his views on
marriage. But, one can only interpret his views on marriage by reading the Republic or by the work of the other authors.
Nietzsche’s views on Marriage
When it comes to getting relationship advice, Nietzsche may be described as one of the most disqualified persons
since he was not able to find love his entire life. Although all his marriage proposals were turned down, in spite of this
Nietzsche views on love have impacted the thinking of many thinkers and philosophers in the 20th century.
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Nietzsche always credited a great value to friendship; he thought it as a relationship where two people continue to
advise each other through their entire life. Nietzsche believed that marriage was not a small thing which could be
fulfilled just by love, according to him people should:
1. Not marry just for looks: Nietzsche believed that one should not marry the other person just for good looks. What
would you do when your significant other grew old, got wrinkles and did not retain their youthful look? That’s why he
believed true friendship between the partners was more important than looks in order for the marriage to last.
2. Marry your best friend: Nietzsche believed that one person should always marry their best friend. According to him
true friendship is like the foundation for true love as true friends always support, admire and help each other their entire
lives.
3. Never promise everlasting love: According to Nietzsche one should never promise everlasting love to anyone.
Instead they should promise each other that ‘till the time they love each other, people should render true actions of love
and if they cease to love each other at any point, then also they should promise each other the same actions through
other human motives’.
4. Marry to make super babies: Nietzsche believed that one should not only marry to make babies, but people should
marry to make super babies; which is not just increasing the population, but making such babies which are different
from the population.
He didn’t keep marriage as a necessary condition for procreating, but it provides a good foundation for kids and makes
them strong, healthy and well­educated. 
To conclude, Nietzsche always put true friendship as the basis of a successful marriage where both partners always
inspire and admire each other. 
He believed that temporary or romantic love was not enough for a successful marriage, but a relationship where both
the partners mutually inspire each other was much more important.
CONCLUSION
Plato’s view with Nietzsche view differed in many ways. While Plato believed in same sex love and homosexuality,
Nietzsche gave importance to friendship. Plato’s accepted sexual activity only with the intention to reproduce while
Nietzsche believed that any sexual activity acts as a hindrance in friendship. Nietzsche held that feelings of attraction
and sexual desire wouldn’t last long and thus marriages would fail while Plato’s views on marriage were vague and
describe marriage and its laws in the most general terms. Nietzsche also believed that erotic love is a desire to acquire.
The social idea of platonic love is explained along with the description of Plato’s Symposium which shows the
perspectives he has for love. The paper has a wide explanation of the Greek culture to which they belonged which
includes the mention of incest marriages and homosexuality. Nietzsche explains love via his concept of Amor Fati or
"love of fate". Also, he never goes in­depth about what he thinks of love.
Overall, there are a lot of aspects from both their theories that stand true and can be used in today’s contemporary
world, but we cannot just choose one theory and consider it the absolute truth. Briefly, there are a lot of things about the
two most famous philosophers that the entire group learned a lot about.