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Plato | 128 pages | 25 Aug 2005 | Penguin Books Ltd | 9780141023847 | English | London, United Kingdom The Symposium - IMDb

From Coraline to ParaNorman check out some of our favorite family-friendly movie picks to watch this Halloween. See the full gallery. Two English stage actors, Hugo and Jago, have an artistic difference while rehearsing a radio play. This evolves rapidly into a huge fracas, and spills onto a West End side street. Naturally, this draws a horde or passersby, including an American bystander, who elects to be the peacemaker. Things soon deteriorate from the scholarly to the brutal, even physical, and long held personal and societal prejudices surface. Class, racial origins, and history are harshly debated. Then Hugo, the posh one, proclaims his African ancestry, which bombshell causes a puzzled Jago to accost an African Traffic warden for verification, thus opening a third front to his quarrel with Hugo. There is a reversal of roles, with the posh Hugo championing liberal causes, the working class Jago becoming more and more entrenched as a xenophobe, and the traffic warden boasting an exemplary academic and social pedigree, despite his job. Unbeknownst to Jago, however, this entire 'symposium' is meant either to be his Written by Ishmael Annobil. Looking for something to watch? Choose an adventure below and discover your next favorite movie or TV show. Visit our What to Watch page. Sign In. Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Full Cast and Crew. Release Dates. Official Sites. Company Credits. Technical Specs. Plot Summary. Plot Keywords. External Sites. The Symposium is a response to The Frogs , and shows winning not only over Aristophanes, who was the author of both The Frogs , and , but also over the tragic poet who was portrayed in that comedy as the victor. It is considered that the work was written no earlier than BCE, and the party to which it makes reference has been fixed in BCE, the year in which the host Agathon had the dramatic triumph mentioned in the text. The disastrous expedition to Syracuse , of which Alcibiades was a commander, took place the following year, [18] after which Alcibiades deserted to Sparta , Athens ' archenemy. Hamilton remarks that takes care to portray Alcibiades and Socrates and their relationship in a way that makes it clear that Socrates had not been a bad influence on Alcibiades. Plato does this to free his teacher from the guilt of corrupting the minds of prominent youths, which had, in fact, earned Socrates the death sentence in BC. The story of the banquet is narrated by Apollodorus, but before the narration proper begins, it is shown that Apollodorus is telling the story to a friend of his that isn't named, and also that the story of this banquet has been told before by others, as well as previously by Apollodorus himself. This section previews the story of the banquet, letting the reader know what to expect, and it provides information regarding the context and the date. The banquet was hosted by the poet Agathon to celebrate his first victory in a dramatic competition: the Dionysia of BCE. Apollodorus was not present at the event, which occurred when he was a boy, but he heard the story from Aristodemus , who was present. Apollodorus later checked parts of the story with Socrates, who was also there. In this brief introductory passage, it is shown that the narrator, Apollodorus, has a reputation for being somewhat mad, that he is a passionate follower of Socrates, and that he spends his days either listening to Socrates or else telling others of what he has learned from Socrates. The story, as told by Apollodorus, then moves to the banquet at Agathon's home, where Agathon challenges each of the men to speak in praise of the Greek god, . Apollodorus tells his friend a story of a symposium, or banquet, that was hosted by the playwright Agathon to celebrate his victory in a dramatic festival the night before. Socrates is late to arrive because he became lost in thought on the way. When they are done eating, Eryximachus takes the suggestion made by , that they should all make a speech in praise of Eros, the god of love and desire. It will be a competition of speeches to be judged by Dionysus. It is anticipated that the speeches will ultimately be bested by Socrates, who speaks last. Phaedrus starts by pointing out that Eros is the oldest of the gods, and that Eros promotes virtue in people. He distinguishes between this virtuous love, and the love of an older man for a young immature boy, which he says should be forbidden on the grounds that love should be based on qualities of intelligence and virtue that are not yet part of a boy's makeup and may not develop. Eryximachus has the next speech although he has switched with Aristophanes and suggests that Eros encourages "sophrosyne", or soundness of mind and character, and is not only about human behavior, but also occurs in music, medicine, and many other areas of life. The fourth speech is from Aristophanes, who tells a comic, fantastical story about how humans were at one time two people conjoined, but this was seen as threatening to the gods, so Zeus cut everyone in half just like fish is cut in two parts. The irony in his storytelling is obvious he praises the "confidence, courage and manliness" of males searching for males "and there is good evidence for this in the fact that only males of this type, when they are grown up, prove to be real men in politics" - which is highly ironical for such a critic of the times' politicians as Aristophanes himself [21] Love is the desire we have to find our other half, in order to become whole. Agathon follows Aristophanes, and his speech sees Eros as youthful, beautiful, and wise; and as the source of all human virtues. Before Socrates gives his speech he asks some questions of Agathon regarding the nature of love. Socrates then relates a story he was told by a wise woman called Diotima. According to her, Eros is not a god but is a spirit that mediates between humans and their objects of desire. Love itself is not wise or beautiful but is the desire for those things. Love is expressed through propagation and reproduction: either physical love or the exchanging and reproducing of ideas. The greatest knowledge, Diotima says, is knowledge of the "form of beauty", which humans must try to achieve. When Socrates is nearly done, Alcibiades crashes in, terribly drunk, and delivers an encomium to Socrates himself. No matter how hard he has tried, he says, he has never been able to seduce Socrates, because Socrates has no interest in physical pleasure. Despite this speech, Agathon lies down next to Socrates, much to Alcibiades' chagrin. The party becomes wild and drunken, with the symposium coming to an end. Many of the main characters take the opportunity to depart and return home. Aristodemus goes to sleep. When he wakes up the next morning and prepares to leave the house, Socrates is still awake, proclaiming to Agathon and Aristophanes that a skillful playwright should be able to write comedy as well as tragedy d. When Agathon and Aristophanes fall asleep, Socrates rises up and walks to the Lyceum to wash and tend to his daily business as usual, not going home to sleep until that evening d. Phaedrus opens by citing Hesiod , Acusilaus and for the claim that Eros is the oldest of the gods. He confers great benefits, inspiring a lover to earn the admiration of his beloved, for example by showing bravery on the battlefield, since nothing shames a man more than to be seen by his beloved committing an inglorious act db. As evidence for this, he mentions some mythological heroes and lovers. Even Achilles , who was the beloved of Patroclus , sacrificed himself to avenge his lover, and Alcestis was willing to die for her husband Admetus. Pausanias, the legal expert of the group, introduces a distinction between a nobler and a baser kind of love, which anticipates Socrates' discourse. The base lover is in search of sexual gratification, and his objects are women and boys. He is inspired by Pandemos Aphrodite common to the whole city. The noble lover directs his affection towards young men, establishing lifelong relationships, productive of the benefits described by Phaedrus. This love is related to Aphrodite Heavenly Aphrodite and is based on honoring one's partner's intelligence and wisdom. He then analyses the attitudes of different city-states relative to homosexuality. The first distinction he makes is between the cities that clearly establish what is and what is not admitted, and those that are not so explicitly clear, like Athens. In the first group there are cities favorable to homosexuality, like Elis , Boeotia and Sparta , or unfavorable to it like Ionia and Persia. The case of Athens is analyzed with many examples of what would be acceptable and what would not, and at the end, he makes the assertion that Athens' code of behavior favors the nobler type of love and discourages the baser. Eryximachus speaks next, though it is Aristophanes' turn, as the latter has not recovered from his hiccups enough to take his place in the sequence. First Eryximachus starts out by claiming that love affects everything in the universe, including plants and animals, believing that once love is attained it should be protected. Love might be capable of curing the diseased. Love governs medicine, music, and astronomy a , and regulates hot and cold and wet and dry, which when in balance result in health a. Eryximachus here evokes the theory of the humor. He concludes: "Love as a whole has It enables us to associate, and be friends, with each other and with the gods" d Transl. He comes across as someone who cannot resist the temptation to praise his own profession: "a good practitioner knows how to treat the body and how to transform its desires" d. Hamilton considers that Aristophanes' speech, which comes next, is one of Plato's most brilliant literary achievements. Before starting his speech, Aristophanes warns the group that his eulogy to love may be more absurd than funny. His speech is an explanation of why people in love say they feel "whole" when they have found their love partner. He begins by explaining that people must understand human nature before they can interpret the origins of love and how it affects their own times. This is, he says because in primal times people had doubled bodies, with faces and limbs turned away from one another. As spherical creatures who wheeled around like clowns doing cartwheels a , these original people were very powerful. There were three sexes: the all male, the all female, and the "androgynous," who was half male, half female. The males were said to have descended from the sun, the females from the earth and the androgynous couples from the moon. These creatures tried to scale the heights of Olympus and planned to set upon the gods b-c. Zeus thought about blasting them with thunderbolts but did not want to deprive himself of their devotions and offerings, so he decided to cripple them by chopping them in half, in effect separating the two bodies. Ever since that time, people run around saying they are looking for their other half because they are really trying to recover their primal nature. The women who were separated from women run after their own kind, thus creating lesbians. The men split from other men also run after their own kind and love being embraced by other men e. Those that come from original androgynous beings are the men and women that engage in heterosexual love. He says some people think homosexuals are shameless, but he thinks they are the bravest, most manly of all, as evidenced by the fact that only they grow up to be politicians a , and that many heterosexuals are adulterous and unfaithful e. Aristophanes then claims that when two people who were separated from each other find each other, they never again want to be separated c. This feeling is like a riddle, and cannot be explained. Aristophanes ends on a cautionary note. He says that men should fear the gods, and not neglect to worship them, lest they wield the ax again and we have to go about hopping on one leg, split apart again a. If a man works with the god of Love, they will escape this fate and instead find wholeness. His speech may be regarded as self-consciously poetic and rhetorical, composed in the way of the sophists, [23] gently mocked by Socrates. He says that love is the youngest of the gods and is an enemy of old age b. He says that the god of love shuns the very sight of senility and clings to youth. Agathon says love is dainty and likes to tiptoe through the flowers and never settles where there is no "bud to bloom" b. It would seem that none of the characters at the party, with the possible exception of Agathon himself, would be candidates for love's companionship. Socrates, probably the oldest member of the party, seems certain to be ruled out. He also implies that love creates justice, moderation, courage, and wisdom. These are the cardinal virtues in ancient Greece. Although devoid of philosophical content, the speech Plato puts in the mouth of Agathon is a beautiful formal one, and Agathon contributes to the Platonic love theory with the idea that the object of love is beauty. Socrates turns politely to Agathon and, after expressing admiration for his speech, asks whether he could examine his positions further. What follows is a series of questions and answers, typical of Plato's earlier dialogues, featuring Socrates' famous method of dialectics. First, he asks Agathon whether it is reasonable for someone to desire what they already have, like for example someone who is in perfect health to wish he were healthy a-e. Agathon agrees with Socrates that this would be irrational, but is quickly reminded of his own definition of Love's true desires: youth and beauty. Putting the two together then, for Love to desire youth he must not have it himself, thus making him old, and for him to desire beauty, he himself must be ugly. Agathon has no choice but to agree. After this exchange, Socrates switches to storytelling, a departure from the earlier dialogues where he is mostly heard refuting his opponent's arguments through rational debating. Diotima first explains that Love is neither a god, as was previously claimed by the other guests, nor a mortal but a daemon , a spirit halfway between god and man, who was born during a banquet thrown by the gods to celebrate the birth of Aphrodite. One of the guests was Plutus , the god of wealth, who was passed out from drinking too much nectar, and it so happened that another deity arrived, Poverty , who came to the banquet to beg, and upon seeing Plutus lying unconscious took the chance to sleep with him, conceiving a child in the process: Love. Having been born at Aphrodite's birthday party, he became her follower and servant, but through his real origins Love acquired a kind of double nature. From his mother, Love became poor, ugly, and with no place to sleep c-d , while from his father he inherited the knowledge of beauty, as well as the cunningness to pursue it. Being of an intermediary nature, Love is also halfway between wisdom and ignorance, knowing just enough to understand his ignorance and try to overcome it. Beauty then is the perennial philosopher, the "lover of wisdom" the Greek word " philia " being one of the four words for love. After describing Love's origins, that provide clues to its nature, Diotima asks Socrates why is it, as he had previously agreed, that love is always that "of beautiful things" b. For if love affects everyone indiscriminately, then why is it that only some appear to pursue beauty throughout their lives? Socrates does not have the answer and so Diotima reveals it: Beauty is not the end but the means to something greater, the achievement of a certain reproduction and birth c , the only claim that mortals can have on immortality. This is true for men as well as animals that seek an appropriate place to give birth, preferring to roam in pain until they find it. Some men are pregnant in body alone and, just like animals, enjoy the company of women with whom they can have children that will pass on their existence. Others are pregnant in both body and mind, and instead of children they carry wisdom, virtue, and above all, the art of civic order a. Beauty is also their guide, but it will be towards the knowledge needed to accomplish their spiritual births. In conclusion, Diotima gives Socrates a guide on how a man of this class should be brought up from a young age. First, he should start by loving a particular body he finds beautiful, but as time goes by, he will relax his passion and pass to the love of all bodies. From this point, he will pass to the love of beautiful minds, and then to that of knowledge. Finally, he will reach the ultimate goal, which is to witness beauty in itself rather than representations a-b , the true Form of Beauty in Platonic terms. Symposium by Plato Summary | GradeSaver

Upon reaching this, the lover will see Beauty in its pure Form, and give birth not to an image of virtue, but true virtue. The guests begin to excuse themselves, at which point Aristodemus falls asleep. He wakes up shortly before dawn, when Agathon, Aristophanes, and Socrates were still conversing. Socrates was trying to convince them that a writer must master both comedy and tragedy. As he was about to end his argument, Aristophanes fell asleep, shortly before Agathon. Socrates then left, followed by Aristophanes. Which of these steps is crucial when doing a close reading of nonfiction? How does Plato, using integrative thinking, ultimately find a way to connect erotic love, beauty and the absolute into a unified whole? I'm familiar with the concept of integrative thinking but unsure on the details of it that would cover such a complex set of variables. Symposium study guide contains a biography of Plato, literature essays, a complete e-text, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis. Symposium essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of Symposium by Plato. Remember me. Forgot your password? Buy Study Guide. Are you giving me choices here? State of Nature. Study Guide for Symposium by Plato Symposium study guide contains a biography of Plato, literature essays, a complete e-text, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis. Essays for Symposium by Plato Symposium essays are academic essays for citation. In The Symposium too the same ultimate question is approached, this time through the question of how to love perfectly. The answer that emerges is simple - love only things that are ends in themselves, do only them. Ends-in-themselves are not to done for any further end, to achieve something else. And most importantly, they should be eternal. The Symposium is a particularly dramatic work. It is set at the house of Agathon, a tragic poet celebrating his recent poetic victory. Those present are amongst the intellectual elite of the day, including an exponent of heroic poetry Phaedrus , an expert in the of various Greek states Pausanias , a representative of medical expertise Eryximachus , a comic poet Aristophanes and a philosopher Socrates. And the political maverick Alcibiades towards the end. The Symposium The Symposium consists mainly of a series of praise speeches encomia , delivered in the order in which these speakers are seated: They begin with the discourse of Phaedrus, and the series contains altogether eight parts divided into two principal sequences: The Speeches 1. Phaedrus : Love makes us noble and gods honor it. Love is the greatest god. Love is nobility. This is the simplest of the speeches. An unconditional praising of Love and this from the same Phaedrus who unconditionally condemns it in his own eponymous dialogue! Pausanias perhaps the most interesting of these speeches for this reviewer : Wants to define Love before praising it. Love is not in itself noble and worthy of praise; it depends on whether the sentiments it produces in us are themselves noble. The common, vulgar lover loves the body rather than the soul, his love is bound to be inconstant, since what he loves is itself mutable and unstable. How different from this is a man who loves the right sort of character, and who remains its lover for life, attached as he is to something that is permanent. This explains two further facts: First, why we consider it shameful to yield too quickly: the passage of time in itself provides a good test in these matters. Second, why we also consider it shameful for a man to be seduced by money or political power, either because he cringes at ill- treatment and will not endure it or because, once he has tasted the benefits of wealth and power, he will not rise above them. None of these benefits is stable or permanent, apart from the fact that no genuine affection can possibly be based upon them. For the young man has already shown himself to be the sort of person who will do anything for money—and that is far from honorable. By the same token, suppose that someone takes a lover in the mistaken belief that this lover is a good man and likely to make him better himself, while in reality the man is horrible, totally lacking in virtue; even so, it is noble for him to have been deceived. For he too has demonstrated something about himself: that he is the sort of person who will do anything for the sake of virtue—and what could be more honorable than that? And this, of course, is the Heavenly Love of the heavenly goddess. All other forms of love belong to the vulgar goddess. Everything sound and healthy in the body must be encouraged and gratified. Plato also uses this occasion to make fun of Aristophanes by painting whims lewd and bawdy man, given to sensual pleasures and fits of hiccups. Use your head! Remember, as you speak, that you will be called upon to give an account. Agathon : Decides to stop the praising of Love and focus on the Qualities of Love - "For every praise, no matter whose: you must explain what qualities in the subject of your speech enable it to give the benefits for which we praise it. So now, in the case of Love, it is right for us to praise him first for what it is and afterwards for its gifts. Thus, Love is the source of all good, according to Agathon. Socrates : Enough with the Eulogies! Is Love such as to be a love of something or of nothing? It is a desire for something lacking or a desire for preservation of what has been acquired. What constitutes eudaimonia is not to be had in a moment in time. Answer: Seek Love in Beauty; and Reproduction and Birth, in Beauty - The argument does not deviate much from that in Phaedrus; readers will want to compare this speech on Love with those of Socrates in Phaedrus. He defines intellectual activity to be the best good, and more central to human happiness than any other activity. Socrates was not responsible for the corruption. Even Philosophy is dependent on good students to produce results. Symposium: A Conclusion The Symposium belongs with the dialogues concerned with Education, especially the moral education of the young. That Education and Desires are seen to play such an important role in moral development draws on a theme elaborated in the , and is concerned with the development of character and how that contributes to the good life. Though Plato leads us to the lofty heights of the Forms as the true end of our desire for good things and happiness, his account is nonetheless one that resonates beyond such abstractions. The Symposium does not contain a fully developed theory of the self, although it outlines with considerable care the dimensions of concern which preoccupy human beings. Its achievement is a rich and unitary image of human striving. Through this conception, even if narrow, of a flourishing life where certain things are advocated to the young as valuable, the dialogue explores the nature of eudaimonia , which may be translated as "happiness" or "flourishing". And it is this concern that relates the Symposium to a fundamental question that informs a variety of Platonic dialogues: How should one live? It is by prompting us to reflect more deeply on the relationship between our desires and their real end, and the role that our lovers might play in helping us to achieve it, that the Symposium really makes its mark. View all 30 comments. Shelves: philosophy. How could anyone not find this a book worth reading? Jun 03, Roy Lotz rated it it was amazing Shelves: oldie- but-goodie , footnotes-to-plato. It has been a long time since I first read The Symposium. That was back in university, in my freshman year course Sexuality in Literature. Even now, it is surprising to find that one of the most influential and foundational works on love in Western history is largely focused on relationships that have often been deemed illegal. Imagine what the medieval Europeans would have It has been a long time since I first read The Symposium. Imagine what the medieval Europeans would have thought of this work, had it not been entirely inaccessible to them in Latin. Plato was a writer in perfect control of his craft; and even little detail of this short dialogue bursts with life. The reader feels as if she is really there, eavesdropping on a bunch of drunken Athenians as they extemporize on love. Plato here shows us a genuine diversity of opinions and styles, proving himself a versatile writer. View all 7 comments. Nov 22, Elenabot rated it it was amazing Shelves: know-thyself , favorites. The Symposium holds the key to ancient psychology. One has but to compare post-Freudian psychology's understanding of the drives with Plato's discourse on human longing here in order to measure the distance between the ancient and modern orientations to reality. It is strange for us to conceive this in the post-Darwinian, post- Freudian era, but Plato genuinely held that the longing to know is the fundamental human drive, with sexuality the modern candidate foundational drive being derived ther The Symposium holds the key to ancient psychology. It is strange for us to conceive this in the post-Darwinian, post- Freudian era, but Plato genuinely held that the longing to know is the fundamental human drive, with sexuality the modern candidate foundational drive being derived therefrom. What a different psychology this basic belief reveals! And with this alternate psychology Plato reveals an orientation to the world that opens up horizons entirely other to those we are accustomed to. Plato has shown a concern for the way that our pre-rational orientation to the real feeds into and constrains our capacity to reason already in other dialogues, such as The Republic. One gets the feeling that the arch-rationalist becomes progressively haunted, in each dialogue, by the realization that what we love determines in advance the direction our rationality can take in its approach to the real. Nietzsche commented admiringly on Plato's psychological acumen evinced by his discovery that our strongest longing is the true, but hidden, master of our reason. Already with the Symposium we see that the structure of reasoning crystallizes itself around this primordial, pre-rational engagement with the real. Early on in the dialogue, Socrates makes the rather cheeky claim that it is only the genuine philosopher who can understand the real meaning of desire. Socrates further proposes, to the incredulity of others present, that indeed, philosophy is somehow connected with the pursuit of the fulfillment of this deepest desire. And what better setting could Plato choose to prove the power of Socrates's insight into the human drives than a drinking party? Here, Socrates proves his superior capacity to harmonize and rein in his whole human capacity for feeling not merely by displaying his superior discursive prowess, but also by drinking every last one of his companions under the table by banquet's end. The banquet setting thus seems like a mock ordeal which allows Socrates to reveal his deeper mastery over his animal nature. It is the depth of his transformation of his pre-rational nature that makes him the better philosopher. What Socrates shows us is that our longing is the hunger for completion awakened by our growing awareness of finitude. It is a drive to transcend the boundaries of our finitude through an effort to establish a relationship to a reality that is registered as being more complete than that possessed by the finite self. Socrates' famous speech on the real nature of love in this dialogue attests to the fact that our desire for sexual love is an offshoot of this primordial drive - which is part and parcel of the structure of consciousness itself - to find our fullest orientation to reality in an act of knowing that relates all that we are to a world which is for the first time experienced as a unity. In the growth of our consciousness, we first learn to relate body to human body, immersing ourselves in the physical continuum of interchanges in a game of self-forgetful clinging to outward shadows. At this level of self-development, according to Plato's account of the levels of understanding in the Republic our relation is merely to the shifting outward images of being. Because we cannot conceive the unity of things at this level, we fall short of that supreme mark of reality, which is the knowledge of the unity of things. Our love at this level thus remains a game of hide-and-seek, played with ourselves as much as with one another. But as the power of our minds grows, we cannot fail to realize deeper dimensions of our longing to relate. We now come to long for a relationship to the real established on the basis of our most characteristic capacity. We long to relate to the world on the level of mind, and we find that this relation to the world not only takes us deeper into the heart of the real. Our deepest desire is realized in the perception of the world on the level of form. This level of perception also takes us deeper into ourselves, as well as revealing the true basis for relating to one another. Our real community is a communion of minds. Socrates proposition to us is that we are selves and lovers to the extent that we realize our true nature as knowers. And we attain realization as selves to the extent that we progress from being driven by our shadow-loving sexual love to that more comprehensive love in us that is wisdom itself. The rest of Plato's philosophy is arguably built on this psychology of self-realization. Plato's identification through Socrates of Love, the Good, the Beautiful, and the True is really the best definition of the most consummate philosophic vision. In our highest reasonings, Plato's Socrates claims, these four things become one. Their union, in the actuality of an experience, is what we call wisdom, the end goal of the whole search that structures our lives from the first awakening of consciousness in infancy. Modern philosophy would be different if we operated under the same definition of reason. The greatest proof of its power, to me, is that even Nietzsche, who was its most serious critic, nonetheless pined for the loss of it. It seems that Plato's description of the goal of human development was accurate after all, even if it remains only an inescapable regulative ideal for philosophic inquiry without ever becoming a stable, humanly realizable reality. This dialogue is worth reading if only for Alcibiades' drunkenly revealing speech expressing Socrates' effect on those poor souls, like himself, whom he manages to convert to his way of life. Surely there has been no greater portrait of the psychology of a great philosopher anywhere, nor of the effect that such a figure inevitably will have on natures less in tune with the original drive to know that structures human nature! But Alcibiades nonetheless proves himself to be Socrates' truest disciple, even as he expresses his frustration at his inability read: unwillingness to follow him to the end. Alcibiades poignantly shows what's in store for all of us as soon as we start to take this gig seriously: the way that Socrates represents will cleave us into two warring parts so that we become strangers to our old desires and attachments, and strangers in the world, awaiting a new birth. View all 13 comments. Aug 12, Ian "Marvin" Graye rated it really liked it Shelves: cul-poli-phil-art , reviews , read , reviewsstars , plato , eros , desire. And guess what? Even the concept of "Platonic Love" could possibly be more accurately attributed to Socrates, but more likely to Diotima. In fact, I wonder whether this work proves that the Greek understanding of Love as we comprehend it actually owes more to women than men. The Epismetology of the Word "Symposium" Despite being familiar with the word for decades, I had no idea that "symposium" more or less literally means a "drinking party" or "to drink together". How appropriate that Pomona was the Roman goddess of fruitful abundance. Of course, many of us will remember our first experience of a toga party from the film "Animal House". Alcohol-Free Daze I should mention one other aspect of the plot sorry about the spoiler, but the work is 2, years old today, so you've had enough time to catch up , and that is that Socrates appears to have attended two symposia over the course of two consecutive days. In those days, future philosophers were counselled to embrace alternating alcohol-free days. In breach of this medical advice, Socrates and his confreres turn up to this Symposium hung-over from the previous night. As a result, there was more talking than drinking. An Artist in Comedy as Well as Tragedy One last distraction before I get down to Love: It has always puzzled readers that "The Symposium" ends with a distinct change of tone as the feathered cocks begin to crow and the sun rises on our slumber party: "Aristodemus was only half awake, and he did not hear the beginning of the discourse; the chief thing which he remembered was Socrates compelling the other two to acknowledge that the genius of comedy was the same with that of tragedy, and that the true artist in tragedy was an artist in comedy also. Anyway, it remains for us to determine how serious this on Love should be taken. Togas on? Hey, Ho! The tale concerns a Symposium at the House of Agathon. On the way, Socrates drops "behind in a fit of abstraction" this is before the days of Empiricism and retires "into the portico of the neighbouring house", from which initially "he will not stir". When he finally arrives, he is too hung-over to drink or talk, so he wonders whether "wisdom could be infused by touch, out of the fuller into the emptier man, as water runs through wool out of a fuller cup into an emptier one. Phaedrus on Reciprocity Phaedrus speaks of the reciprocity of Love and how it creates a state of honour between Lover and Beloved. A state or army consisting of lovers whose wish was to emulate each other would abstain from dishonor, become inspired heroes, equal to the bravest, and overcome the world. Phaedrus also asserts that the gods admire, honour and value the return of love by the Beloved to his Lover, at least in a human sense, more than the love shown by the Lover for the Beloved. Paradoxically, this is because the love shown by the Lover is "more divine, because he is inspired by God". Pausanius on the Heavenly and the Common Pausanius argues that there are two types of Love that need to be analysed: the common and the heavenly or the divine. The "common" is wanton, has no discrimination, "is apt to be of women as well as youths, and is of the body rather than of the soul". In contrast, heavenly love is of youths: " Eryximachus on the Healthy and the Diseased Eryximachus, a physician, defines Love in terms of both the soul and the body. He distinguishes two kinds of love: the desire of the healthy and the desire of the diseased. These two are opposites, and the role of the physician is to harmonise or "reconcile the most hostile elements in the constitution", by analogy with music, which is an "art of communion". Aristophanes on "The Origin of Love" Aristophanes explains the origin of the gender and sexuality of mankind in terms of three beings, one of which was a double-male now separated into homosexual men , one a double female now separated into homosexual women and the third an androgynous double now separated into heterosexual male and female by Zeus: " Love in the form of Temperance is the master of pleasures and desires. It "empties men of disaffection and fills them with affection. Socrates on Good Socrates approaches the topic of Love by asking questions, for example, "whether Love is the Love of something or nothing? He then quotes Diotima extensively. The Pizmotality of Diotima Diotima, by a process that we would now call the , leads Socrates to the conclusion that Love is the love of the "everlasting possession of the Good". We seek Good, so that we can maintain it eternally. We achieve immortality by way of fame and offspring. Diotima argues that Beauty applies to both the soul and the body. However, the "Beauty of the Mind is more honourable than the Beauty of the outward Form. Alciabades on Indifference At this point, the younger Alciabades speaks. He is equal parts frat and prat, he is evidently "in love" with Socrates, and seems intent on complaining that Socrates has resisted his sexual advances. Even though Alciabades had slept a night with "this wonderful monster in my arms I arose as from the couch of a father or an elder brother. He teases him by proposing that Socrates and Agathon share a couch for the night. If this had been a PowerPoint Presentation, Socrates, Plato and I would have told you what we were going to say, then say it, and end by telling you what we had just said. Only then will I be able to speak more definitively of the Pompatus of Love. View all 18 comments. I'm glad I chose this translation by Robin Waterfield , and this publisher Oxford World's Classic - the introduction is of great help, and the text flows easily and is very understandable, and doesn't feel stiff and such. This book's subject is a series of speeches praising Love both of sexual and of mind-kind; the former producing sometimes children, the latter creative works and learning - the latter is more immortal and superior in author's opinion. The book ends with useful notes and a n I'm glad I chose this translation by Robin Waterfield , and this publisher Oxford World's Classic - the introduction is of great help, and the text flows easily and is very understandable, and doesn't feel stiff and such. The book ends with useful notes and a name index that shines light on the party guests and names popping up in conversations. Plato wrote the book between BC most likely around BC. Plato sets this imagined high-society dinner-part in Athens, BC, which is told about to others just after the death of one of the guests, Alcibades, in BC. Other guests include the comic poet Aristophanes who of course gets the funny hiccups that is cured with sneezing , and Plato's teacher, Socrates, who gets to be the giver of Plato's opinion on the subject Socrates himself gets it from not-certain-if-existed person that is Diotima, a wise woman. I liked this quote: " On the other hand, ignorant people don't love knowledge or desire wisdom either, because the trouble with ignorance is precisely that if a person lacks virtue and knowledge, he's perfectly satisfied with the way he is. If a person isn't aware of a lack, he can't desire the thing which he isn't aware of lacking. Alcibades comes to a bad end in exile, murdered by the Persians; Socrates, as we know from history, gets a death sentence, having to drink poison. But all ends well in this story: people leave the party, some sleep to the next morning, and Socrates goes back to the Lyceum gymnasium and public baths in the morning as usual he has a good alcohol tolerance. We get a great dinner-party conversation about love, that hold surprisingly noble, interesting thoughts to carry with us to life. View all 5 comments. The life of the party 26 August You've really got to love the way Plato writes philosophy. Whereas everybody else simply writes what is in effect a work of non-fiction explaining some ideas, Plato seems to have the habit of inserting them into a story. Okay, he may not be the only philosopher that uses a story to convey his philosophical ideas, but he certainly stands out from his contemporaries, who simply wrote treatises. I've read a few of his works, and he always seems to structure it in The life of the party 26 August You've really got to love the way Plato writes philosophy. I've read a few of his works, and he always seems to structure it in a similar way, usually beginning with a conversation that has absolutely nothing to do with the ideas that he is trying to explore, but rather idle chit-chat. The Symposium stands out from his over works because the discussion occurs during a party nice one Plato. In fact as I was reading this I could almost imagine the exact same scenario happening today. A group, who had had a pretty heavy night of drinking the night before decide to take it a little easier tonight, order a pizza, grab a couple of six packs of beer, and sit in the lounge room for a quiet one while still nursing the remnants of a hangover. Instead of turning on the television they decide to have a conversation. However, as the night wears on there is a knock at the door, and upon opening it we find the guy that we all know with two bottles of Jack Daniels in his hands who invites himself into the discussion. However this guy is hardly the philosophical type, and his discussion simply turns into how wonderful he thinks this other guy happens to be. Then there is another knock at the door, and as it happens he has invited all his friends over, and that quiet night ends up turning into another free-for all. Come morning, one of the guys from the original group picks himself off the couch, and in the haze of a hangover sees that three of the original group are still up and are talking about something completely different. However he is way too hungover to join in so he makes his way home. That's basically the plot of the Symposium. However Plato simply isn't telling a story about the party, he is exploring the idea of love. In fact it is suggested that what he is actually doing is recounting the discussion that occurred during an actual Symposium years before and from the last couple of paragraphs it appears that the person who was telling the story was Aristodemus — whoever he happens to be — but he is telling it to another guy named Apollodorus, who I suspect is then telling Plato. This book is really interesting on so many levels. Not only are we allowed to listen into a discussion between Greeks about the nature of love, we are also given a pretty detailed glimpse of what went on during a symposium or at least one that initially wasn't supposed to be a drunken free for all, but then again I'm sure we have all experienced something similar in our lives. Not only is it a work of philosophy, it is a work that gives us a very clear picture of the Ancient Athenian culture. Before I continue I must say one thing — Socrates is a freak. The book opens with Aristodemus meeting up with Socrates and then Socrates invites himself along to a party at Agathon's house. However when they arrive Socrates doesn't enter, he just stands outside staring into space. You know what he's like. He'll come in once he's had his revelation. He's still out there! This is getting ridiculous, I'm bringing him inside! You know how he exists in his own little world. Come to think of it, he sound's like that cat that stands at the open door, but really has no intention of going inside, or even staying outside. However, as I have indicated and as many of you probably already know this book is more than a story about what happened at Agathon's party though I am sure many of us have had the experience where somebody we know comes along and gives us a detailed account of the party they went to the other night — though it is no where near as good as actually being there but an exposition of love. Each of the main characters gives a dissertation of their idea of love, and as is expected, Socrates' dissertation is left until last. However I am sort of wandering whether the conversation occurred how it has been reported, or whether Plato is altering the events to suit his own purpose I can't remember the intricate details, or the philosophical discussion I had at any of the parties I went to — all I can remember is talking about George Bush. For instance, we have Pausanius talk about how there are two kinds of love — physical and celestial. In a way there is the base love that we humans experience, a love that is expressed in physical actions such as sex. However there is also spiritual love, that which is expressed in spiritual actions such as self-sacrifice. I should pause here and state that my view of love unfortunately is tarnished by my Christian upbringing. I say that because the way I view love is that it exists entirely on the spiritual level. To me the love that Pausanius describes as physical love is actually little more than lust. However, Socrates does suggest that love is the desire to possess that which is beautiful, which does fall into the category that Pausanius describes. In my mind, love is not so much a feeling but rather expressed through actions such as self-sacrifice. Love is also unconditional — it doesn't play favourites, which means that it is impossible to love one person and no another though due to our human nature, and our natural instinct to play favourites, unconditional love is a state that is very difficult to achieve. Now I wish to say a few things about my view on desire and sex. In my mind sex has two purposes — a means to stimulate the pleasure centres of the brain much like a drug and to procreate. The reason that it stimulates the pleasure centres is because it is a mechanism to encourage us to procreate. However we won't know about its pleasurable aspects unless we actually engage in it, which is why many of us develop this desire for members of the opposite sex. These desires exist to encourage us to have sex so that we might perpetuate the species. Note that I don't speak about 'falling in love' simply because I do not believe that these biological desires have anything to do with love — once again Hollywood is lying to us. Anyway, lets get on to Socrates: Socrates describes love as being the desire to possess that which is beautiful. In a way what he is suggesting is that if we possesses that which is beautiful then we are happy. In my mind Socrates is confusing love with happiness, but let us continue. He starts off by suggesting that this love begins on a physical level where we see a single person who we believe is beautiful and we desire to possess that person. This possession is fulfilled in the sexual act. However he suggests that to seek true beauty we simply cannot rest on one person, but we must begin to see the beauty in many people. As such our desire for that one person begins to diminish as we begin to see everybody else as being just as beautiful as this one person. However, he then takes the next step and suggests that we begin to move away from physical beauty to come to see the mental beauty that is the intelligence of individual people. As such we begin to lose interest in those whose beauty is not intellectual to focus on those who are. As such physical beauty begins to take a back seat. From there we move on to understand absolute beauty, namely that we can see beauty in everything without differentiation. This absolute is quite interesting — Plato rejects relativism. In his mind there must be an absolute because the universe simply cannot exist without one. A relative world is a world that is chaotic and has no form, but by looking at the world he can see that there is an absolute form, but he realises that everybody sees these forms differently. Thus his quest is the search for the absolute, and to move beyond relativism and the world of the opinion to try to understand and grasp the absolute truth. This the the goal of this book, to reject the relativism of physical beauty and to seek out the absolute of the celestial beauty. However, he does something really interesting — once Socrates finishes his speech in comes Alcibaides and brings the entire discussion back to reality. Not only does he interject into the discussion, he turns it completely on its head by telling everybody how wonderful he thinks Socrates is he lusts after Socrates, but Socrates won't have a bar of it. Plato understands the real world, and this is what Alcibaides represents. While we may begin to ascend the ladder towards our grasp of absolute beauty, things will happen that will bring us crashing back down to reality. As I said, Socrates was a freak, which is why he was able to rebuff Alcibaides' advances. View all 10 comments. Sep 04, Steve rated it it was amazing Shelves: philosophy , greek. Plato was 11 years old when the banquet took place, so, as in and , all the speeches are Plato's invention, though he may well have listened to stories about the banquet from participants. The general topic of the speeches: love in all of its forms. Each of the participants in the banquet is, in turn, to deliver a speech about Love. And deliver they do Eryximachus, first up to bat, laments that so little poetry has been dedicated to the topic of Love. Phaedrus, in honorable Greek tradition, reaches into the past and recalls what Hesiod and Parmenides, among others, had to say. Love is the eldest and most beneficent of the gods. Then he launches into an explanation why the love between men fosters and supports honor and virtuous behavior. A common theme at this banquet, which makes me wonder why the Christians permitted this text to survive. Thank goodness the Christian crusade against "sodomy" is ebbing into impotence. Phaedrus unfavorably contrasts Orpheus' love for his wife with Achilles' love for Patroclus and can't resist asserting that Achilles was the bottom, not Patroclus, because he was the fairer, beardless and younger; he doesn't use "bottom", but in the Greco-Roman world, those are the attributes of the "passive" partner in a homosexual relationship - I've heard some conversations like this at drunken parties, but Achilles usually wasn't the subject of the gossip. Pausanias then holds forth on the distinction between noble Love, expressed for youths who are "beginning to grow their beards", and common Love, whose object is women and boys. At this point I'd be wondering if somebody had slipped something into the wine. But I'd be listening closely. He gives a lengthy and closely reasoned moral argument in favor of this. The greatest knowledge of all, she confides, is knowledge of the Form of Beauty, which we must strive to attain. At the end of Socrates' speech, Alcibiades bursts in, falling-down drunk, and delivers a eulogy to Socrates himself. In spite of Alcibiades' best efforts, he has never managed to seduce Socrates as Socrates has no interest at all in physical pleasure. Soon the party descends into chaos and drinking and Aristodemus falls asleep. He awakes the next morning to find Socrates still conversing. When everyone else has finally fallen asleep, Socrates gets up and goes about his daily business as always. Election Day is November 3rd! Make sure your voice is heard. Overall Summary Context Overall Analysis and Themes a - e a - b c - c c - b c - e e - e a - c d - c d - e a - c c - c c - d. Study Questions Bibliography. Symposium (Plato) - Wikipedia

Ask a lawyer to talk about love! Like asking a priest to talk about honor, or a politician to talk about common decency! So he pontificates about pederasty for a while, which made me uncomfortable, so I got up to get some coffee. I may have stopped by the brandy bottle on the way back out, I can't recall. Who knew they had hippies in those days? I needed more brandy, I mean coffee! Then comes Aristophanes. Now seriously, this is a good bit. Aristophanes, in Plato's world, tells us why we feel whole, complete, when we're with our true love: Once upon a time, we were all two-bodied and two-souled beings, all male, all female, or hermaphroditic. When these conjoined twins fell into disfavor, Zeus cleaved them apart, and for all eternity to come, those souls will wander the earth seeking the other half torn from us. Now being Aristophanes, Plato plays it for laughs, but this is really the heart of the piece. Plato quite clearly thought this one through, in terms of what makes us humans want and need love. It's a bizarre version of Genesis, don'cha think? So there I was glazed over with brandy-fog admiration for the imagination of this boybanger, and I was about to give up and pass out take my contemplations indoors when the wind, riffling the pages a bit, caused me to light on an interesting line. I continued with the host's speech. Now really Especially about luuuuv? I mean, the previous speech. It was a little bit hard to hold the magnifying glass, for some reason, and it kept getting in the way of the brandy bottle. I mean, coffee thermos! I'm not all the way sure what Plato had Socrates say, but it wasn't riveting lemme tell ya what. I woke up, I mean came to, ummm that is I resumed full attention when the major studmuffin and hawttie Alcibiades comes in, late and drunk! As I leaned to do so, I remember thinking how lovely and soft the bricks looked. When I woke up under the glass table top, the goddamned magnifying glass had set what remains of the hair on top of my head on fire. The moral of the story is, reading The Symposium should never be undertaken while outdoors. View all 79 comments. Jul 27, Manny rated it liked it Recommends it for: People confused by Love. Shelves: linguistics-and-philosophy , well-i- think-its-funny , too-sexy-for-maiden-aunts. Let's all welcome our finalists! They shake hands. More applause. I'm thrilled to have with us living legend Paul McCartney, world-famous novelist E. James, the beautiful and talented Lindsay Lohan, controversial scientist Richard Dawkins and ever-popular hockey mom Sarah Palin! It's impossible to make out a word anyone says. I'm just going to remind you of the rules before we start. Each member of the jury gives us a short speech, and then we count up the votes to see who our lucky winner is. Over to you, Paul! Well, I look at our two finalists, and you know what I'm thinking? I'm thinking they won that special place they have in our hearts because they told us about Love. And I remember back in when John gave that interview where he said - no offense intended - "we're more popular than Jesus". Because it is amazing, isn't it? There's nothing you can do that can't be done Nothing you can sing that can't be sung Nothing you can say but you can learn how to play the game It's easy Nothing you can make that can't be made No one you can save that can't be saved Nothing you can do but you can learn how to be you in time It's easy All you need is love-- OPRAH: That's wonderful, Paul, but who are you voting for? He was always had a thing for Socrates. George too. Yes, Socrates it is. The scoreboard shows Really takes me back. So Socrates is in the lead, but it's early days yet. Your turn, Erika! Now, I'm sure some of you have read the Fifty Shades books, and I believe a lot of people misunderstand them. It's easy just to think about the sex and the glitz and the limos and the handcuffs and the blindfolds and the whips and the-- OPRAH: I'm not quite sure what you're trying to say here, Erika. What most people don't realize is that these books aren't about sex, they're about Love. They're a spiritual journey, where Ana has to help Christian - have you ever wondered why he's called Christian? You'll have to tell us now who you're voting for. But now the score's , and we're moving on to our third member of the jury. Your turn, Lindsay! She said it'd be good for me. So, yeah, Love. To me, love's about trying to find my soulmate. I bet there's plenty of you people who feel the same way I do, there's someone out there who's, like, the other half of me and I have to find that person to be complete. You know? And it's really hard to guess who that person is, maybe it's a guy, like, you know, maybe Justin or Ashton or Zac or Ryan, and we were once this person who was half a man and half a woman and we got split apart, or maybe it's a woman, like maybe Sam or-- OPRAH: Lindsay, that's such a moving thought, but we've got to watch the clock. Who are you voting for? It's all there in the Symposium. The Aristophanes speech. I must have read it a million times. You just need to keep looking. So Socrates has taken a lead and we're going over to our next speaker. Now, I've been sitting here listening to all of you, and I've enjoyed your contributions, but I'm a scientist and I've got to think about things in a scientific way. When I think about love as a scientist, all I ultimately see is tropisms and feedback loops. An organism feels a lack of something - it could be as simple as an E. Love is just the concrete expression of that negative feedback loop. I take it you're voting for him then? Oh, no, no, not at all. Jesus, every time. Jesus, now there's a straightforward, plain-speaking person with solid humanist values. Just a shame he got mixed up with the religion business. Always ready to surprise us, Richard! So it's up to Sarah to cast the deciding vote. Over to you, Sarah! I'm just a regular small- town girl with regular small-town values, and I was brought up readin' the Sermon on the Mount. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake, blessed are ye when men shall revile you, smaller government, lower taxes, support Israel, no to-- OPRAH: Is that all in the Sermon on the Mount, Sarah? But it's there. I'm votin' for Jesus. Forthright as ever! And thank you everyone, particularly Socrates and Mr. Christ, for an amazing and deeply spiritual experience, it's been incredible meeting you all, thank you again, and we'll be back next week. View all 36 comments. Jan 05, Riku Sayuj rated it it was amazing Shelves: direct-phil , r-r-rs , philosophy , translated , classics , plato. Before that, I simply drifted aimlessly. Of course, I used to think that what I was doing was important, but in fact I was the most worthless man on earth— as bad as you are this very moment: I used to think philosophy was the last thing a man should do. However, this is as difficult a topic to capture in teaching as it is to achieve in action. Hence he approaches the topic by defining many peripheral topics - by showing various aspects of the good life. In The Symposium too the same ultimate question is approached, this time through the question of how to love perfectly. The answer that emerges is simple - love only things that are ends in themselves, do only them. Ends-in-themselves are not to done for any further end, to achieve something else. And most importantly, they should be eternal. The Symposium is a particularly dramatic work. It is set at the house of Agathon, a tragic poet celebrating his recent poetic victory. Those present are amongst the intellectual elite of the day, including an exponent of heroic poetry Phaedrus , an expert in the laws of various Greek states Pausanias , a representative of medical expertise Eryximachus , a comic poet Aristophanes and a philosopher Socrates. And the political maverick Alcibiades towards the end. The Symposium The Symposium consists mainly of a series of praise speeches encomia , delivered in the order in which these speakers are seated: They begin with the discourse of Phaedrus, and the series contains altogether eight parts divided into two principal sequences: The Speeches 1. Phaedrus : Love makes us noble and gods honor it. Love is the greatest god. Love is nobility. This is the simplest of the speeches. An unconditional praising of Love and this from the same Phaedrus who unconditionally condemns it in his own eponymous dialogue! Pausanias perhaps the most interesting of these speeches for this reviewer : Wants to define Love before praising it. Love is not in itself noble and worthy of praise; it depends on whether the sentiments it produces in us are themselves noble. The common, vulgar lover loves the body rather than the soul, his love is bound to be inconstant, since what he loves is itself mutable and unstable. How different from this is a man who loves the right sort of character, and who remains its lover for life, attached as he is to something that is permanent. This explains two further facts: First, why we consider it shameful to yield too quickly: the passage of time in itself provides a good test in these matters. Second, why we also consider it shameful for a man to be seduced by money or political power, either because he cringes at ill-treatment and will not endure it or because, once he has tasted the benefits of wealth and power, he will not rise above them. None of these benefits is stable or permanent, apart from the fact that no genuine affection can possibly be based upon them. For the young man has already shown himself to be the sort of person who will do anything for money—and that is far from honorable. By the same token, suppose that someone takes a lover in the mistaken belief that this lover is a good man and likely to make him better himself, while in reality the man is horrible, totally lacking in virtue; even so, it is noble for him to have been deceived. For he too has demonstrated something about himself: that he is the sort of person who will do anything for the sake of virtue—and what could be more honorable than that? And this, of course, is the Heavenly Love of the heavenly goddess. All other forms of love belong to the vulgar goddess. Everything sound and healthy in the body must be encouraged and gratified. Plato also uses this occasion to make fun of Aristophanes by painting whims lewd and bawdy man, given to sensual pleasures and fits of hiccups. Use your head! Remember, as you speak, that you will be called upon to give an account. Agathon : Decides to stop the praising of Love and focus on the Qualities of Love - "For every praise, no matter whose: you must explain what qualities in the subject of your speech enable it to give the benefits for which we praise it. So now, in the case of Love, it is right for us to praise him first for what it is and afterwards for its gifts. Thus, Love is the source of all good, according to Agathon. Socrates : Enough with the Eulogies! Is Love such as to be a love of something or of nothing? It is a desire for something lacking or a desire for preservation of what has been acquired. What constitutes eudaimonia is not to be had in a moment in time. Answer: Seek Love in Beauty; and Reproduction and Birth, in Beauty - The argument does not deviate much from that in Phaedrus; readers will want to compare this speech on Love with those of Socrates in Phaedrus. He defines intellectual activity to be the best good, and more central to human happiness than any other activity. Socrates was not responsible for the corruption. Even Philosophy is dependent on good students to produce results. Symposium: A Conclusion The Symposium belongs with the dialogues concerned with Education, especially the moral education of the young. That Education and Desires are seen to play such an important role in moral development draws on a theme elaborated in the Republic , and is concerned with the development of character and how that contributes to the good life. Though Plato leads us to the lofty heights of the Forms as the true end of our desire for good things and happiness, his account is nonetheless one that resonates beyond such abstractions. The Symposium does not contain a fully developed theory of the self, although it outlines with considerable care the dimensions of concern which preoccupy human beings. Its achievement is a rich and unitary image of human striving. Through this conception, even if narrow, of a flourishing life where certain things are advocated to the young as valuable, the dialogue explores the nature of eudaimonia , which may be translated as "happiness" or "flourishing". And it is this concern that relates the Symposium to a fundamental question that informs a variety of Platonic dialogues: How should one live? It is by prompting us to reflect more deeply on the relationship between our desires and their real end, and the role that our lovers might play in helping us to achieve it, that the Symposium really makes its mark. View all 30 comments. Shelves: philosophy. How could anyone not find this a book worth reading? Jun 03, Roy Lotz rated it it was amazing Shelves: oldie-but-goodie , footnotes-to-plato. It has been a long time since I first read The Symposium. That was back in university, in my freshman year course Sexuality in Literature. Even now, it is surprising to find that one of the most influential and foundational works on love in Western history is largely focused on relationships that have often been deemed illegal. Imagine what the medieval Europeans would have It has been a long time since I first read The Symposium. Imagine what the medieval Europeans would have thought of this work, had it not been entirely inaccessible to them in Latin. Plato was a writer in perfect control of his craft; and even little detail of this short dialogue bursts with life. The reader feels as if she is really there, eavesdropping on a bunch of drunken Athenians as they extemporize on love. Plato here shows us a genuine diversity of opinions and styles, proving himself a versatile writer. View all 7 comments. Nov 22, Elenabot rated it it was amazing Shelves: know-thyself , favorites. The Symposium holds the key to ancient psychology. One has but to compare post-Freudian psychology's understanding of the drives with Plato's discourse on human longing here in order to measure the distance between the ancient and modern orientations to reality. It is strange for us to conceive this in the post-Darwinian, post- Freudian era, but Plato genuinely held that the longing to know is the fundamental human drive, with sexuality the modern candidate foundational drive being derived ther The Symposium holds the key to ancient psychology. It is strange for us to conceive this in the post-Darwinian, post- Freudian era, but Plato genuinely held that the longing to know is the fundamental human drive, with sexuality the modern candidate foundational drive being derived therefrom. What a different psychology this basic belief reveals! And with this alternate psychology Plato reveals an orientation to the world that opens up horizons entirely other to those we are accustomed to. Plato has shown a concern for the way that our pre-rational orientation to the real feeds into and constrains our capacity to reason already in other dialogues, such as The Republic. One gets the feeling that the arch-rationalist becomes progressively haunted, in each dialogue, by the realization that what we love determines in advance the direction our rationality can take in its approach to the real. Nietzsche commented admiringly on Plato's psychological acumen evinced by his discovery that our strongest longing is the true, but hidden, master of our reason. Already with the Symposium we see that the structure of reasoning crystallizes itself around this primordial, pre-rational engagement with the real. Early on in the dialogue, Socrates makes the rather cheeky claim that it is only the genuine philosopher who can understand the real meaning of desire. Socrates further proposes, to the incredulity of others present, that indeed, philosophy is somehow connected with the pursuit of the fulfillment of this deepest desire. And what better setting could Plato choose to prove the power of Socrates's insight into the human drives than a drinking party? Here, Socrates proves his superior capacity to harmonize and rein in his whole human capacity for feeling not merely by displaying his superior discursive prowess, but also by drinking every last one of his companions under the table by banquet's end. The banquet setting thus seems like a mock ordeal which allows Socrates to reveal his deeper mastery over his animal nature. It is the depth of his transformation of his pre-rational nature that makes him the better philosopher. What Socrates shows us is that our longing is the hunger for completion awakened by our growing awareness of finitude. It is a drive to transcend the boundaries of our finitude through an effort to establish a relationship to a reality that is registered as being more complete than that possessed by the finite self. Socrates' famous speech on the real nature of love in this dialogue attests to the fact that our desire for sexual love is an offshoot of this primordial drive - which is part and parcel of the structure of consciousness itself - to find our fullest orientation to reality in an act of knowing that relates all that we are to a world which is for the first time experienced as a unity. In the growth of our consciousness, we first learn to relate body to human body, immersing ourselves in the physical continuum of interchanges in a game of self-forgetful clinging to outward shadows. At this level of self-development, according to Plato's account of the levels of understanding in the Republic our relation is merely to the shifting outward images of being. Because we cannot conceive the unity of things at this level, we fall short of that supreme mark of reality, which is the knowledge of the unity of things. Our love at this level thus remains a game of hide-and-seek, played with ourselves as much as with one another. But as the power of our minds grows, we cannot fail to realize deeper dimensions of our longing to relate. We now come to long for a relationship to the real established on the basis of our most characteristic capacity. We long to relate to the world on the level of mind, and we find that this relation to the world not only takes us deeper into the heart of the real. Our deepest desire is realized in the perception of the world on the level of form. This level of perception also takes us deeper into ourselves, as well as revealing the true basis for relating to one another. Our real community is a communion of minds. Socrates proposition to us is that we are selves and lovers to the extent that we realize our true nature as knowers. And we attain realization as selves to the extent that we progress from being driven by our shadow-loving sexual love to that more comprehensive love in us that is wisdom itself. The rest of Plato's philosophy is arguably built on this psychology of self- realization. Plato's identification through Socrates of Love, the Good, the Beautiful, and the True is really the best definition of the most consummate philosophic vision. In our highest reasonings, Plato's Socrates claims, these four things become one. Their union, in the actuality of an experience, is what we call wisdom, the end goal of the whole search that structures our lives from the first awakening of consciousness in infancy. Modern philosophy would be different if we operated under the same definition of reason. The greatest proof of its power, to me, is that even Nietzsche, who was its most serious critic, nonetheless pined for the loss of it. It seems that Plato's description of the goal of human development was accurate after all, even if it remains only an inescapable regulative ideal for philosophic inquiry without ever becoming a stable, humanly realizable reality. This dialogue is worth reading if only for Alcibiades' drunkenly revealing speech expressing Socrates' effect on those poor souls, like himself, whom he manages to convert to his way of life. Surely there has been no greater portrait of the psychology of a great philosopher anywhere, nor of the effect that such a figure inevitably will have on natures less in tune with the original drive to know that structures human nature! But Alcibiades nonetheless proves himself to be Socrates' truest disciple, even as he expresses his frustration at his inability read: unwillingness to follow him to the end. Alcibiades poignantly shows what's in store for all of us as soon as we start to take this gig seriously: the way that Socrates represents will cleave us into two warring parts so that we become strangers to our old desires and attachments, and strangers in the world, awaiting a new birth. View all 13 comments. Aug 12, Ian "Marvin" Graye rated it really liked it Shelves: cul-poli-phil-art , reviews , read , reviewsstars , plato , eros , desire. And guess what? Even the concept of "Platonic Love" could possibly be more accurately attributed to Socrates, but more likely to Diotima. In fact, I wonder whether this work proves that the Greek understanding of Love as we comprehend it actually owes more to women than men. The Epismetology of the Word "Symposium" Despite being familiar with the word for decades, I had no idea that "symposium" more or less literally means a "drinking party" or "to drink together". How appropriate that Pomona was the Roman goddess of fruitful abundance. Of course, many of us will remember our first experience of a toga party from the film "Animal House". Alcohol-Free Daze I should mention one other aspect of the plot sorry about the spoiler, but the work is 2, years old today, so you've had enough time to catch up , and that is that Socrates appears to have attended two symposia over the course of two consecutive days. In those days, future philosophers were counselled to embrace alternating alcohol-free days. In breach of this medical advice, Socrates and his confreres turn up to this Symposium hung-over from the previous night. As a result, there was more talking than drinking. An Artist in Comedy as Well as Tragedy One last distraction before I get down to Love: It has always puzzled readers that "The Symposium" ends with a distinct change of tone as the feathered cocks begin to crow and the sun rises on our slumber party: "Aristodemus was only half awake, and he did not hear the beginning of the discourse; the chief thing which he remembered was Socrates compelling the other two to acknowledge that the genius of comedy was the same with that of tragedy, and that the true artist in tragedy was an artist in comedy also. Anyway, it remains for us to determine how serious this Socratic Dialogue on Love should be taken. Togas on? Hey, Ho! The tale concerns a Symposium at the House of Agathon. On the way, Socrates drops "behind in a fit of abstraction" this is before the days of Empiricism and retires "into the portico of the neighbouring house", from which initially "he will not stir". When he finally arrives, he is too hung-over to drink or talk, so he wonders whether "wisdom could be infused by touch, out of the fuller into the emptier man, as water runs through wool out of a fuller cup into an emptier one. Phaedrus on Reciprocity Phaedrus speaks of the reciprocity of Love and how it creates a state of honour between Lover and Beloved. A state or army consisting of lovers whose wish was to emulate each other would abstain from dishonor, become inspired heroes, equal to the bravest, and overcome the world. Phaedrus also asserts that the gods admire, honour and value the return of love by the Beloved to his Lover, at least in a human sense, more than the love shown by the Lover for the Beloved. Paradoxically, this is because the love shown by the Lover is "more divine, because he is inspired by God". Pausanius on the Heavenly and the Common Pausanius argues that there are two types of Love that need to be analysed: the common and the heavenly or the divine. The "common" is wanton, has no discrimination, "is apt to be of women as well as youths, and is of the body rather than of the soul". In contrast, heavenly love is of youths: " Eryximachus on the Healthy and the Diseased Eryximachus, a physician, defines Love in terms of both the soul and the body. He distinguishes two kinds of love: the desire of the healthy and the desire of the diseased. These two are opposites, and the role of the physician is to harmonise or "reconcile the most hostile elements in the constitution", by analogy with music, which is an "art of communion". Aristophanes on "The Origin of Love" Aristophanes explains the origin of the gender and sexuality of mankind in terms of three beings, one of which was a double- male now separated into homosexual men , one a double female now separated into homosexual women and the third an androgynous double now separated into heterosexual male and female by Zeus: " Love in the form of Temperance is the master of pleasures and desires. It "empties men of disaffection and fills them with affection. Socrates on Good Socrates approaches the topic of Love by asking questions, for example, "whether Love is the Love of something or nothing? He then quotes Diotima extensively. The Pizmotality of Diotima Diotima, by a process that we would now call the Socratic Method, leads Socrates to the conclusion that Love is the love of the "everlasting possession of the Good". We seek Good, so that we can maintain it eternally. We achieve immortality by way of fame and offspring. Diotima argues that Beauty applies to both the soul and the body. However, the "Beauty of the Mind is more honourable than the Beauty of the outward Form. Alciabades on Indifference At this point, the younger Alciabades speaks. He is equal parts frat and prat, he is evidently "in love" with Socrates, and seems intent on complaining that Socrates has resisted his sexual advances. Even though Alciabades had slept a night with "this wonderful monster in my arms I arose as from the couch of a father or an elder brother. He teases him by proposing that Socrates and Agathon share a couch for the night. If this had been a PowerPoint Presentation, Socrates, Plato and I would have told you what we were going to say, then say it, and end by telling you what we had just said. Only then will I be able to speak more definitively of the Pompatus of Love. View all 18 comments. I'm glad I chose this translation by Robin Waterfield , and this publisher Oxford World's Classic - the introduction is of great help, and the text flows easily and is very understandable, and doesn't feel stiff and such. This book's subject is a series of speeches praising Love both of sexual and of mind-kind; the former producing sometimes children, the latter creative works and learning - the latter is more immortal and superior in author's opinion. The book ends with useful notes and a n I'm glad I chose this translation by Robin Waterfield , and this publisher Oxford World's Classic - the introduction is of great help, and the text flows easily and is very understandable, and doesn't feel stiff and such. The book ends with useful notes and a name index that shines light on the party guests and names popping up in conversations. Plato wrote the book between BC most likely around BC. Plato sets this imagined high-society dinner-part in Athens, BC, which is told about to others just after the death of one of the guests, Alcibades, in BC. Other guests include the comic poet Aristophanes who of course gets the funny hiccups that is cured with sneezing , and Plato's teacher, Socrates, who gets to be the giver of Plato's opinion on the subject Socrates himself gets it from not- certain-if-existed person that is Diotima, a wise woman. I liked this quote: " On the other hand, ignorant people don't love knowledge or desire wisdom either, because the trouble with ignorance is precisely that if a person lacks virtue and knowledge, he's perfectly satisfied with the way he is. If a person isn't aware of a lack, he can't desire the thing which he isn't aware of lacking. Alcibades comes to a bad end in exile, murdered by the Persians; Socrates, as we know from history, gets a death sentence, having to drink poison. But all ends well in this story: people leave the party, some sleep to the next morning, and Socrates goes back to the Lyceum gymnasium and public baths in the morning as usual he has a good alcohol tolerance. We get a great dinner-party conversation about love, that hold surprisingly noble, interesting thoughts to carry with us to life. View all 5 comments. The life of the party 26 August You've really got to love the way Plato writes philosophy. Whereas everybody else simply writes what is in effect a work of non-fiction explaining some ideas, Plato seems to have the habit of inserting them into a story. Okay, he may not be the only philosopher that uses a story to convey his philosophical ideas, but he certainly stands out from his contemporaries, who simply wrote treatises. I've read a few of his works, and he always seems to structure it in The life of the party 26 August You've really got to love the way Plato writes philosophy. I've read a few of his works, and he always seems to structure it in a similar way, usually beginning with a conversation that has absolutely nothing to do with the ideas that he is trying to explore, but rather idle chit-chat. The Symposium stands out from his over works because the discussion occurs during a party nice one Plato. In fact as I was reading this I could almost imagine the exact same scenario happening today. A group, who had had a pretty heavy night of drinking the night before decide to take it a little easier tonight, order a pizza, grab a couple of six packs of beer, and sit in the lounge room for a quiet one while still nursing the remnants of a hangover. Instead of turning on the television they decide to have a conversation. However, as the night wears on there is a knock at the door, and upon opening it we find the guy that we all know with two bottles of Jack Daniels in his hands who invites himself into the discussion. However this guy is hardly the philosophical type, and his discussion simply turns into how wonderful he thinks this other guy happens to be. Then there is another knock at the door, and as it happens he has invited all his friends over, and that quiet night ends up turning into another free- for all. Come morning, one of the guys from the original group picks himself off the couch, and in the haze of a hangover sees that three of the original group are still up and are talking about something completely different. However he is way too hungover to join in so he makes his way home. That's basically the plot of the Symposium. However Plato simply isn't telling a story about the party, he is exploring the idea of love. In fact it is suggested that what he is actually doing is recounting the discussion that occurred during an actual Symposium years before and from the last couple of paragraphs it appears that the person who was telling the story was Aristodemus — whoever he happens to be — but he is telling it to another guy named Apollodorus, who I suspect is then telling Plato. This book is really interesting on so many levels. Not only are we allowed to listen into a discussion between Greeks about the nature of love, we are also given a pretty detailed glimpse of what went on during a symposium or at least one that initially wasn't supposed to be a drunken free for all, but then again I'm sure we have all experienced something similar in our lives. Not only is it a work of philosophy, it is a work that gives us a very clear picture of the Ancient Athenian culture. Before I continue I must say one thing — Socrates is a freak. The book opens with Aristodemus meeting up with Socrates and then Socrates invites himself along to a party at Agathon's house. However when they arrive Socrates doesn't enter, he just stands outside staring into space. You know what he's like. He'll come in once he's had his revelation. He's still out there! This is getting ridiculous, I'm bringing him inside! You know how he exists in his own little world. Come to think of it, he sound's like that cat that stands at the open door, but really has no intention of going inside, or even staying outside. However, as I have indicated and as many of you probably already know this book is more than a story about what happened at Agathon's party though I am sure many of us have had the experience where somebody we know comes along and gives us a detailed account of the party they went to the other night — though it is no where near as good as actually being there but an exposition of love. Each of the main characters gives a dissertation of their idea of love, and as is expected, Socrates' dissertation is left until last. However I am sort of wandering whether the conversation occurred how it has been reported, or whether Plato is altering the events to suit his own purpose I can't remember the intricate details, or the philosophical discussion I had at any of the parties I went to — all I can remember is talking about George Bush. For instance, we have Pausanius talk about how there are two kinds of love — physical and celestial. In a way there is the base love that we humans experience, a love that is expressed in physical actions such as sex. However there is also spiritual love, that which is expressed in spiritual actions such as self-sacrifice. I should pause here and state that my view of love unfortunately is tarnished by my Christian upbringing. I say that because the way I view love is that it exists entirely on the spiritual level. To me the love that Pausanius describes as physical love is actually little more than lust. However, Socrates does suggest that love is the desire to possess that which is beautiful, which does fall into the category that Pausanius describes. In my mind, love is not so much a feeling but rather expressed through actions such as self-sacrifice. Love is also unconditional — it doesn't play favourites, which means that it is impossible to love one person and no another though due to our human nature, and our natural instinct to play favourites, unconditional love is a state that is very difficult to achieve. Now I wish to say a few things about my view on desire and sex. In my mind sex has two purposes — a means to stimulate the pleasure centres of the brain much like a drug and to procreate. The reason that it stimulates the pleasure centres is because it is a mechanism to encourage us to procreate. However we won't know about its pleasurable aspects unless we actually engage in it, which is why many of us develop this desire for members of the opposite sex. These desires exist to encourage us to have sex so that we might perpetuate the species. Note that I don't speak about 'falling in love' simply because I do not believe that these biological desires have anything to do with love — once again Hollywood is lying to us. Anyway, lets get on to Socrates: Socrates describes love as being the desire to possess that which is beautiful. In a way what he is suggesting is that if we possesses that which is beautiful then we are happy. In my mind Socrates is confusing love with happiness, but let us continue. He starts off by suggesting that this love begins on a physical level where we see a single person who we believe is beautiful and we desire to possess that person. This possession is fulfilled in the sexual act. However he suggests that to seek true beauty we simply cannot rest on one person, but we must begin to see the beauty in many people. As such our desire for that one person begins to diminish as we begin to see everybody else as being just as beautiful as this one person. However, he then takes the next step and suggests that we begin to move away from physical beauty to come to see the mental beauty that is the intelligence of individual people. As such we begin to lose interest in those whose beauty is not intellectual to focus on those who are. As such physical beauty begins to take a back seat. From there we move on to understand absolute beauty, namely that we can see beauty in everything without differentiation. This absolute is quite interesting — Plato rejects relativism. In his mind there must be an absolute because the universe simply cannot exist without one. A relative world is a world that is chaotic and has no form, but by looking at the world he can see that there is an absolute form, but he realises that everybody sees these forms differently. Thus his quest is the search for the absolute, and to move beyond relativism and the world of the opinion to try to understand and grasp the absolute truth. This the the goal of this book, to reject the relativism of physical beauty and to seek out the absolute of the celestial beauty. However, he does something really interesting — once Socrates finishes his speech in comes Alcibaides and brings the entire discussion back to reality. Not only does he interject into the discussion, he turns it completely on its head by telling everybody how wonderful he thinks Socrates is he lusts after Socrates, but Socrates won't have a bar of it. Plato understands the real world, and this is what Alcibaides represents. While we may begin to ascend the ladder towards our grasp of absolute beauty, things will happen that will bring us crashing back down to reality. As I said, Socrates was a freak, which is why he was able to rebuff Alcibaides' advances. View all 10 comments. Sep 04, Steve rated it it was amazing Shelves: philosophy , greek. Plato was 11 years old when the banquet took place, so, as in Crito and Phaedo , all the speeches are Plato's invention, though he may well have listened to stories about the banquet from participants. The general topic of the speeches: love in all of its forms. Each of the participants in the banquet is, in turn, to deliver a speech about Love. And deliver they do Eryximachus, first up to bat, laments that so little poetry has been dedicated to the topic of Love. Phaedrus, in honorable Greek tradition, reaches into the past and recalls what Hesiod and Parmenides, among others, had to say. Love is the eldest and most beneficent of the gods. Then he launches into an explanation why the love between men fosters and supports honor and virtuous behavior. A common theme at this banquet, which makes me wonder why the Christians permitted this text to survive. Thank goodness the Christian crusade against "sodomy" is ebbing into impotence. Phaedrus unfavorably contrasts Orpheus' love for his wife with Achilles' love for Patroclus and can't resist asserting that Achilles was the bottom, not Patroclus, because he was the fairer, beardless and younger; he doesn't use "bottom", but in the Greco-Roman world, those are the attributes of the "passive" partner in a homosexual relationship - I've heard some conversations like this at drunken parties, but Achilles usually wasn't the subject of the gossip. Pausanias then holds forth on the distinction between noble Love, expressed for youths who are "beginning to grow their beards", and common Love, whose object is women and boys. At this point I'd be wondering if somebody had slipped something into the wine. But I'd be listening closely. He gives a lengthy and closely reasoned moral argument in favor of this. I wonder how it would go over in the House of Representatives? Eryximachus, in a return engagement, is a physician and reinterprets Pausanias' moral distinctions in terms of the concepts of "healthy" and "diseased". In a process of what appears to be free association was Plato smirking while he was writing this? Finally, he turns the floor over to the playwright Aristophanes, who clearly had brought his private stash to the party. For he commences to explain that originally mankind had three sexes. Moreover, primeval man was round, had four hands and feet, two faces on one head, etc. In his LSD dream, this primeval man was so powerful that Zeus was envious and smote primeval man in twain. Which explains, of course, why we are always looking for our other half. Instead of being helped away to a sanatorium, Aristophanes goes on to explain how the original three sexes of primeval man fit into the picture. I know I did. After this gobsmackingly strange speech which would have had me trying to figure out where he hid his stash , the boys engage in some good natured banter, and then Agathon takes the floor. He makes a bad start, and then it goes downhill from there. Let's just say that Love had better not drop the soap in the shower when Agathon is around. I know Plato was laughing up his sleeve on this one. Now it is The Man's turn - Socrates steps to the plate. He goes into his usual "Ah, shucks" routine and then starts asking Agathon questions. Please see my review of Plato's Phaedo to see how that goes. After Agathon agrees with everything Socrates says, Socrates launches into a long story, the upshot of which is: the only true love is Love of the Absolute! This sounds more like Plato than Socrates, but no surprise there. Upon which Alcibiades comes staggering into the room. After a brief argument with Socrates about which of the two has the greater hots for the other, Alcibiades stumbles up to the plate. He sings the praises of Socrates' virtue, nobility, fortitude and pedagogy. This speech, if authentic, is one of the most detailed glimpses into Socrates' life we have and is fascinating. As literature, Plato really surpassed himself in this dialogue - even the weakest speeches from the point of view of content and wit were most savorously eloquent. And all were entertaining, each in a very distinct way. While I personally find Plato's physics, metaphysics and epistemology to be absurd and his politics to be frightening, the man could turn a phrase and draw a convincing characterization through speech. While I am completely unconvinced by claims that the Symposium can be viewed as a novel, one can, nonetheless, read it with great pleasure as a purely literary product. By the way, is any of that wine left? Re-read in Benjamin Jowett's translation. One pauses at the idea that some of the brightest lights of Western culture comported themselves in their middle age like frat boys on a Saturday night One of Socrates' many reported virtues was he could drink everybody else under the table and walk away into the dawn perfectly sober. View 2 comments. A wonderful book Before starting his speech, Aristophanes warns the group that his eulogy to love may be more absurd than funny. His speech is an explanation of why people in love say they feel "whole" when they have found their love partner. He begins by explaining that people must understand human nature before they can interpret the origins of love and how it affects their own times. This is, he says because in primal times people had doubled bodies, with faces and limbs turned away from one another. As spherical creatures who wheeled around like clowns doing cartwheels a , these original people were very powerful. There were three sexes: the all male, the all female, and the "androgynous," who was half male, half female. The males were said to have descended from the sun, the females from the earth and the androgynous couples from the moon. These creatures tried to scale the heights of Olympus and planned to set upon the gods b-c. Zeus thought about blasting them with thunderbolts but did not want to deprive himself of their devotions and offerings, so he decided to cripple them by chopping them in half, in effect separating the two bodies. Ever since that time, people run around saying they are looking for their other half because they are really trying to recover their primal nature. The women who were separated from women run after their own kind, thus creating lesbians. The men split from other men also run after their own kind and love being embraced by other men e. Those that come from original androgynous beings are the men and women that engage in heterosexual love. He says some people think homosexuals are shameless, but he thinks they are the bravest, most manly of all, as evidenced by the fact that only they grow up to be politicians a , and that many heterosexuals are adulterous and unfaithful e. Aristophanes then claims that when two people who were separated from each other find each other, they never again want to be separated c. This feeling is like a riddle, and cannot be explained. Aristophanes ends on a cautionary note. He says that men should fear the gods, and not neglect to worship them, lest they wield the ax again and we have to go about hopping on one leg, split apart again a. If a man works with the god of Love, they will escape this fate and instead find wholeness. His speech may be regarded as self-consciously poetic and rhetorical, composed in the way of the sophists, [23] gently mocked by Socrates. He says that love is the youngest of the gods and is an enemy of old age b. He says that the god of love shuns the very sight of senility and clings to youth. Agathon says love is dainty and likes to tiptoe through the flowers and never settles where there is no "bud to bloom" b. It would seem that none of the characters at the party, with the possible exception of Agathon himself, would be candidates for love's companionship. Socrates, probably the oldest member of the party, seems certain to be ruled out. He also implies that love creates justice, moderation, courage, and wisdom. These are the cardinal virtues in ancient Greece. Although devoid of philosophical content, the speech Plato puts in the mouth of Agathon is a beautiful formal one, and Agathon contributes to the Platonic love theory with the idea that the object of love is beauty. Socrates turns politely to Agathon and, after expressing admiration for his speech, asks whether he could examine his positions further. What follows is a series of questions and answers, typical of Plato's earlier dialogues, featuring Socrates' famous method of dialectics. First, he asks Agathon whether it is reasonable for someone to desire what they already have, like for example someone who is in perfect health to wish he were healthy a-e. Agathon agrees with Socrates that this would be irrational, but is quickly reminded of his own definition of Love's true desires: youth and beauty. Putting the two together then, for Love to desire youth he must not have it himself, thus making him old, and for him to desire beauty, he himself must be ugly. Agathon has no choice but to agree. After this exchange, Socrates switches to storytelling, a departure from the earlier dialogues where he is mostly heard refuting his opponent's arguments through rational debating. Diotima first explains that Love is neither a god, as was previously claimed by the other guests, nor a mortal but a daemon , a spirit halfway between god and man, who was born during a banquet thrown by the gods to celebrate the birth of Aphrodite. One of the guests was Plutus , the god of wealth, who was passed out from drinking too much nectar, and it so happened that another deity arrived, Poverty , who came to the banquet to beg, and upon seeing Plutus lying unconscious took the chance to sleep with him, conceiving a child in the process: Love. Having been born at Aphrodite's birthday party, he became her follower and servant, but through his real origins Love acquired a kind of double nature. From his mother, Love became poor, ugly, and with no place to sleep c-d , while from his father he inherited the knowledge of beauty, as well as the cunningness to pursue it. Being of an intermediary nature, Love is also halfway between wisdom and ignorance, knowing just enough to understand his ignorance and try to overcome it. Beauty then is the perennial philosopher, the "lover of wisdom" the Greek word " philia " being one of the four words for love. After describing Love's origins, that provide clues to its nature, Diotima asks Socrates why is it, as he had previously agreed, that love is always that "of beautiful things" b. For if love affects everyone indiscriminately, then why is it that only some appear to pursue beauty throughout their lives? Socrates does not have the answer and so Diotima reveals it: Beauty is not the end but the means to something greater, the achievement of a certain reproduction and birth c , the only claim that mortals can have on immortality. This is true for men as well as animals that seek an appropriate place to give birth, preferring to roam in pain until they find it. Some men are pregnant in body alone and, just like animals, enjoy the company of women with whom they can have children that will pass on their existence. Others are pregnant in both body and mind, and instead of children they carry wisdom, virtue, and above all, the art of civic order a. Beauty is also their guide, but it will be towards the knowledge needed to accomplish their spiritual births. In conclusion, Diotima gives Socrates a guide on how a man of this class should be brought up from a young age. First, he should start by loving a particular body he finds beautiful, but as time goes by, he will relax his passion and pass to the love of all bodies. From this point, he will pass to the love of beautiful minds, and then to that of knowledge. Finally, he will reach the ultimate goal, which is to witness beauty in itself rather than representations a-b , the true Form of Beauty in Platonic terms. This speech, in the interpretation of Marsilio Ficino in De Amore , is the origin of the concept of Platonic love. Entering upon the scene late and inebriated, Alcibiades pays tribute to Socrates. Like Agathon and Aristophanes, Alcibiades is a historical person from ancient Athens. A year after the events of the Symposium , his political enemies would drive him to flee Athens under fear of being sentenced to death for sacrilege and turn traitor to the Spartans. Finding himself seated on a couch with Socrates and Agathon, Alcibiades exclaims that Socrates, again, has managed to sit next to the most handsome man in the room. Socrates asks Agathon to protect him from the jealous rage of Alcibiades, asking Alcibiades to forgive him d. Wondering why everyone seems sober, Alcibiades is informed of the night's agreement e, c ; after Socrates was ending his drunken ramblings, Alcibiades hopes that no one will believe a word Socrates was talking about, Alcibiades proposes to offer an encomium to Socrates c-e. Alcibiades begins by comparing Socrates to a statue of Silenus ; the statue is ugly and hollow, and inside it is full of tiny golden statues of the gods a-b. Socrates then compares Alicibiades to a satyr. Satyrs were often portrayed with the sexual appetite, manners, and features of wild beasts, and often with a large erection. Alcibiades states that when he hears Socrates speak, he feels overwhelmed. The words of Socrates are the only ones to have ever upset him so deeply that his soul started to realize that his aristocratic life was no better than a slave's e. Socrates is the only man who has ever made Alcibiades feel shame b. Yet all this is the least of it c - Alcibiades was intrigued to allow himself to follow Socrates d. Most people, he continues, don't know what Socrates is like on the inside:. I just had to do whatever he told me. He was deeply curious towards 's intelligence and wisdom, but Alcibiades really wanted him sexually at the time that Socrates, a man that gave only platonic love to everyone he has encountered, gave up teaching everything he knew towards Alcibiades because of his pride, lust, and immoral conduct upon him a. Yet Socrates made no move, and Alcibiades began to pursue Socrates "as if I were the lover and he my young prey! When Socrates continually rebuffed him, Alcibiades began to fantasize a view towards Socrates as the only true and worthy lover he had ever had. So he told Socrates that it seemed to him now that nothing could be more important than becoming the best man he could be, and Socrates was best fit to help him reach that aim c-d. Socrates responded that if he did have this power, why would he exchange his true inner beauty for the image of beauty that Alcibiades would provide. Furthermore, Alcibiades was wrong and Socrates knows there is no use in him ea. Alcibiades spent the night sleeping beside Socrates yet, in his deep humiliation, Alcibiades made no sexual attempt b-d. In his speech, Alcibiades goes on to describe Socrates' virtues, his incomparable valor in battle, his immunity to cold or fear. On one occasion he even saved Alcibiades' life and then refused to accept honors for it ec. Socrates, he concludes, is unique in his ideas and accomplishments, unrivaled by any man from the past or present c. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Plato from Raphael 's The School of Athens — On Plato's Symposium. University of Chicago Press Cobb, William S. SUNY Press, Food and Society in Classical Antiquity. Plato's Symposium. Bloom, Allan. Translation and introduction by Walter Hamilton. Penguin Classics. Edman, Irwin, editor. The Works of Plato. Modern Library. The Jowett translation. Simon and Schuster Penn State Press, Aristophanes: Frogs and Other Plays. Oxford University Press, This numbering system will be found in the margin of nearly all editions and translations. Howatson Plato, the Symposium. Cambridge University Press. Socrates: Ironist and Moral Philosopher p. Kindle Edition. . Social gadfly Socratic dialogue Socratic intellectualism Socratic irony Socratic method Socratic paradox . . Barefoot in Athens film Socrates film. Symposium. Socratic Letters. Early life. Namespaces Article Talk.

The Symposium: Study Guide | SparkNotes

Having celebrated the night before, some of the attendees are still hungover, and they propose focusing on conversation instead of drinking. Eryximachus proposes giving encomiums to Love, to which all agree. Phaedrus begins giving a speech focused on the virtue of bravery in love. He tells the origin of love as the youngest god, son of Chaos and Earth. Pausanias follows this speech, with a rather self-righteous tone. He splits Love into Common and Heavenly Love, attributing the latter solely to homosexual, male relationships. He praises Heavenly Love and discusses the role of law, justice, and customs in leading beloveds to make a virtuous choice regarding taking lovers. Aristophanes had the hiccups during Pausanias speech, suggesting that he was possibly mocking Pausanias; because of the hiccups, he skips a turn. The third speech is given by a doctor, Eryximachus, who extends the idea of love beyond interpersonal relationships, claiming love is found in the coexistence of opposites, the harmony of nature. Almost everything can have love and it is of vital importance in his field of medicine. Having been cured of his hiccups, Aristophanes gives the most original speech on love. He tells an origin story, where Zeus cut humans in half. Humans used to have a different shape, somewhat like two human beings stuck together and there were three sexes: male, female, and androgynous male and female. Due to their disinterest in revering the gods, they were split, and now humans search for their other half, on a pursuit of wholeness. He warns that we may be split again, if not pious and revering of the gods. Agathon, the host of the gathering, gives the fifth speech. His is one of the most comedic, even though he is a tragedian. He praises love with beautiful prose, but offers little new content. He reiterates all the virtues each of the past speakers focused on separately when defining the moral character of love: Courage, Justice, Moderation, and Wisdom which replaces Piety. He describes Love as possessing beauty and good things. His speech is a parody of the style of oratory of , his teacher. They agree that Love pursues beauty and good things and that one does not desire what one has. Therefore, Love does not possess these qualities. This description of Love is further explained when Socrates tells them a dialogue he had with Diotima on Love long ago. He and Diotima establish that Love is between beauty and ugliness, between mortal and immortal a spirit , and between wisdom and ignorance. Love is son of Poros Resource and Penia Poverty , desiring beauty, which are good things, which lead to happiness. Love, however, means more than just the love between two people. Rather, the purpose of love is to give birth in beauty. Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Full Cast and Crew. Release Dates. Official Sites. Company Credits. Technical Specs. Plot Summary. Plot Keywords. External Sites. User Reviews. User Ratings. External Reviews. Metacritic Reviews. Photo Gallery. Trailers and Videos. Crazy Credits. Alternate Versions. Director: Ishmael Annobil. Added to Watchlist. Halloween Movies for the Whole Family. Photos Add Image Add an image Do you have any images for this title? Jago Andrew McDonald Old Man in Shades Gordon Schneider Hugo Glen John-Baptiste

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