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Platos’ Lysis or Friendship Essay Socrates advised Hippothales that the latter should not be so generous with his praises for the person he admires and loves because it would only make the beloved egoistic and vain.   Socrates believed that Hippothales will end up losing him that way.   Hippothales adored Lysis and Socrates likened his pursuit to a hunter scaring his prey away. Socrates asked to meet Lysis and with Menexenus engaged in philosophical discussions of love, friendship, desires, good and evil.   Following were the thoughts of Plato through Socrates: One is not truly happy if he is not at liberty to do the things he wants. I disagree on this.   Given an unlimited freedom to do as he pleases may not necessarily make a man happy in the end.   If a person without money chose to rob a bank instead of finding a decent job, the consequences of his action will make him miserable. People love those whom they find useful and who serve certain ends to them. I agree.   They value those who have done them a favor, those who cared and nurtured them, and those whom they depend upon.   Children love their parents for feeding and clothing them when they were young to do those things for themselves.   Parents love their children for the joys they bring.   Patients love their doctors for treating them of their illness and nursing them back to health. These things can not be said of others who have never been a part of their life. Those who still need a teacher are without knowledge or wisdom and therefore have  nothing to be arrogant about. I disagree on two counts.   First, knowledge and wisdom do not always come from the confines of a classroom. Like they say, experience is a great teacher. We learn from everyday encounters.   How we handle what life throws our way is knowledge nobody can teach us.   Second, good deeds and honest life do not require exceptional knowledge or wisdom.   These are enough reasons for a simple man to be proud of. Do not put your beloved in an exalted position by singing praises and feeding his ego  unceasingly.   It would be best to have him see himself as he is. Agree.   Love is real and true if one tries to see the beloved for what he is and not make someone out of him that he is not him at all.   This is to say that the lover must not be blind to the faults and imperfections of the beloved. Love is not always reciprocated, the lover loves the beloved and the beloved may not  love him back, at worst even hate him. Disagree.   I would say that they become true lovers only at the time when they had both seen the virtues and accepted the flaws of each other. They would commit to a relationship only when they are able to find comfort in their love for each other. Men are hated by people they love and loved by people they hate. Slightly agree.   Yes, people may hate those they love but only for reasons that may not necessarily cause them to love less.   They may just be minor irritants, like the wife hating the husband for always being late for dinner.   Ã‚  On the other hand, loving those they hate is the superficial love of the voters to a president who despite his personal indiscretions have done wonders for the economy. A man may be his friend’s enemy and his enemy’s friend. Agree.   A friend is one’s moral guardian.   A friend would not hesitate to stop a man from committing sin or what might cause him pain later.   The friend might not take it well at first and such might cause them misunderstanding, at which point they become enemies.   On the other hand, if his enemy’s life is at stake and it is only the man who can save him and he does, then they at that instant become friends. Like attracts like. Disagree.   It is not always the case.   It is more common to find opposites that attract.   People have always gone for the excitement of others completely different from them.   New ideas and novel ways of doing things that may complement his own.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Plato, through Socrates, defended his philosophies with clarity and profundity that left Menexenus and Lysis in awe and admiration. References Stevenson, Daniel C. (1994-2000).   Lysis or Friendship by Platos.   Web Atomics.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Retrieved April 29, 2008, from http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/lysis.1b.txt