Symposium

by Benjamin Jowett (Translator), Plato

Overview

During a lively dinner party, a series of speakers offer their views on eros or desire. They see love as a response to beauty, a cosmic force, a motive for social action and a means of ethical education. Through jokes and flirtation they reveal their attitudes to love and personal relationships. Aristophanes, the comic poet, tells a haunting myth about our long-lost unity as couples; since then, each of us has been looking for our 'other half'. Socrates radically rethinks the nature of love, and delivers a massive challenge to ancient -- and modern -- romanticism. Finally, the glamorous Alcibiades appears, drunk and supported by a courtesan, to tell us why he tried to seduce Socrates -- and why he failed.

Full of drama, humour and sharply drawn characters, the Symposium offers profound insights into gender roles, sex in society and the value of sublimating our basic instincts. Perhaps no other single work from antiquity retains such direct and immediate relevance for everyone today.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781536971934
Publisher:	CreateSpace Publishing
Publication date:	08/08/2016
Series:	Great Classics , #10
Pages:	92
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.19(d)

About the Author

Plato, (428-348BC) was a philosopher in Classical Greece and the founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. He is widely considered the most pivotal figure in the development of philosophy, especially the Western tradition. Unlike nearly all of his philosophical contemporaries, Plato's entire œuvre is believed to have survived intact for over 2,400 years.




Along with his teacher, Socrates, and his most famous student, Aristotle, Plato laid the very foundations of Western philosophy and science. The philosopher came from one of the wealthiest and most politically active families in Athens. Ancient sources describe him as a bright though modest boy who excelled in his studies.




His father contributed all which was necessary to give to his son a good education, and, therefore, Plato must have been instructed in grammar, music, gymnastics and philosophy by some of the most distinguished teachers of his era. Apuleius informs us that Speusippus praised Plato's quickness of mind and modesty as a boy, and the "first fruits of his youth infused with hard work and love of study."




The precise relationship between Plato and Socrates remains an area of contention among scholars. Plato makes it clear in his Apology of Socrates, that he was a devoted young follower of Socrates. In that dialogue, Socrates is presented as mentioning Plato by name as one of those youths close enough to him to have been corrupted, if he were in fact guilty of corrupting the youth, and questioning why their fathers and brothers did not step forward to testify against him if he was indeed guilty of such a crime (33d-34a). Although their popularity has fluctuated over the years, the works of Plato have never been without readers since the time they were written.

Table of Contents

	Preface	vii
	Introduction	x
	The Symposium	1
	Notes	65
	Select Bibliography	85

Editorial Reviews

A fantastic book. Translation is graceful and elegant yet uncannily accurate. Footnotes very useful, especially for teaching purposes, and the price is surprisingly low. -Eve Browning Cole, University of Minnesota

From the Publisher