Comparing And Contrasting The Different Types Of Love Found In Plato's Essay

Comparing And Contrasting The Different Types Of Love Found In Plato's Symposium And St. Augustine's Confessions - Essay Example Regarding our main topic of focus, love is neither an abstract nor a concrete emotion or feeling. In our daily lives, we usually and constantly refer to the word love innumerable times simply because of our unfamiliarity with its meaning. In all those instances whereby we apply the term love, we mean different things though unawares. In most cases, however, we mean that the referee is something or someone that we desire and would profoundly prefer looking after or caring for. Everything can be a subject to loving by another both abstract and concrete. However, concrete things objects that have no emotions cannot love. The love of an individual towards someone or something therefore encompasses an extremely broad nature and has to be succinctly espoused. The study outlined below encompasses both the similarities and also the dissimilarities between the two philosophers in terms of what their views are regarding the critical issue of love (St Augustine 373). Plato derives his views and definitions for love from the evaluation of other peoples’ personal conveniences regarding love. This kind of love is referred to as common love, merely for sexual satisfaction. He defines heavenly love as a profound feeling or elated emotion that emanates from the soul and characterized by a no-conditional liking and passion between mostly a man and a man. This kind of love is made possible by a connection to the heavenly God. This love is deeply rooted beyond the soul and is indispensable. Common love is referred to as immoral and vulgar since it is aimed at satisfying the participants sexually over a short period of time. This love comes from the profound and strongly rooted physical attraction. This kind of love is not right and is not supported by the two philosophers. St. Augustine gives the same kind of types of love and expounds on the instances in almost a similar way as Plato (Sheffield et al 1). In both their assessments, they perceive the female gender as inferio r to the men excluding the goddesses. This elicits a similarity between the two scholars’ views on the nature and types of love (St Augustine 373). Both Plato and Augustine come to terms that there is a greater version of love than the concrete and physically expressed love. This kind of love is enlightened and formless. Both men and women aim at receiving that enlightenment but in entirely diverse ways. Augustine slightly differs with Plato regarding the actions and activities inculcated in the love relationship. This is sexual contact between people who love each other. Plato argues that sexual intercourse is a path to achievement of the higher love that everyone aims to obtain and which brings about enlightenment. Augustine, on the other side argues that the action of sexual intercourse only brings about tradeoffs towards the achievement of such enlightenment to the higher reality. He perceives and strongly believes that expression of physical love is not a stepping stone but rather a barrier to attainment of spirituality. This is due to the fact that he had previously experienced situations regarding the same issue at hand. He considered romantic or common love as purely sacrilegious and non credible since he had actually gone through in his early ages. Plato argues that in the initial stage of love, the amans’

How to build a deck Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 6500 words

How to build a deck - Assignment Example Building a deck is one of the best improvements you can make for your house. Depending on the material you use, a deck can be an inviting warm place to host parties, outdoor cooking, watch your kids as they play or just a good resting place for your pets. Many real estate agents will tell you that clients value houses that have well placed decks. Having a deck does not require high technology or expertise. Many people are able to do this by following simple instructions. You can actually design, plan and do the masonry and carpentry and see your house turn into something new. Having a good deck actually raises the value of your house. Before doing any modification to your house, it is usually safer to check with the local building inspectors to find out if you need a building permit for this. Doing this will save you embarrassment and money if you have to demolish the deck just because you did not adhere to the rules of your area. It is advisable to visit their offices to get details of what is expected and if there are any inspections that will be done by the officials. Since this deck will be a permanent structure that will hold human life, the government has a right to ensure that it is rightly done and that is why the building inspectors are there. The inspectors may have specified rules in terms of size, design, materials and even how deep you can dig the foundation. It is therefore important to get these permits and the inspectors to approve your intended construction. The inspectors will probably ask you for a deck plan, so you need to be ready for this. There are places where permits are not really required. If you do not need the permit, then do not go looking for one. However, you will need to be aware of the building codes in your area to ensure you are adhering to them. This manual discusses decks and incorporates images and illustrations for easier understanding. The procedures will be discussed as follows: Deck Plan Deck layout Selecting materials - what materials are available and how to choose the best Fittings and Fasteners Construction- laying and deck-step by step procedure Railing and finishing Common problems in building decks The Deck Plan A deck plan consists of the design of the deck with scale drawings of the size of it. Start out by determining where you want the deck to be. Take the measurements of the area putting into consideration permanent structures or plants that cannot be removed. For example, if you have a big palm tree in front of your house that you do not want to remove, you will be forced to adjust your measurements and design to accommodate the tree and at the same time ensure safety. Have a sketch of the design you want. Also, have enough space to accommodate that design. Now, when you have the space and the design, it is time to put the design on paper. Using your sketch, do the ground measurements. At this point, just record them as you measure. You will determine the scale once all the measuremen ts have been done. When you have all the sections measured, work out a scale. An example is