Plato's Lysis: On Friendship

"I should greatly prefer a real friend to all the gold of Darius, or even to Darius himself."

The Lysis begins with Socrates encountering a youth on his way to the Lyceum who has been singing ridiculous songs and writing poems for a boy, Lysis, with whom he is madly in love. The youth asks Socrates the important question: “‘What advice can you give so that Lysis will like me?’”

Lysis is a dialogue about friendship — philia — but it also explores the eros ("erotic") for which Plato is famous. As usual in the shorter dialogues, Socrates asks a question — what is friendship? — and gets a series of dissatisfying answers.

Can only the good be a friend? Can the bad be friends? The like? The unlike?

The greek word "philia" is the root of philosophy (philo- sophy), which is love of wisdom. Astute readers will notice the role of the good in this dialogue. What is it to be a friend of wisdom?

Please read the dialogue in advance (about 19 pages) and we will discuss it together.

Assigned Reading:
• The Lysis (http://www.theosofie.be/A_PDF/Plato_Complete_Works.pdf) ( S. Lombardo translation beginning on page 687 of the pdf)
•http://books.ebooklibrary.org/members/penn_state_collection/psuecs/lysis.pdf or Here http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/lysis.html) (Jowett translation)
[AUDIO (https://librivox.org/lysis-by-plato/)]
OPTIONAL MEDIA:
• Philosophy By The Book podcast (http://philosophybythebook.libsyn.com/philosophy-by-the-book-episode-8-platos-lysis)