Plato's Symposium, on Love

The Symposium is one of Plato's most celebrated works. Written in the 4th century BC, it is a dialogue set at a dinner party attended by a number of prominent ancient Athenians, including the philosopher Socrates and the playwright Aristophanes, each of whom gives a speech in praise of love. It is the most lavishly literary of Plato's works -- a virtuoso prose performance in which the author, like a playful maestro, shows off an entire repertoire of characters, ideas, contrasting viewpoints, and iridescent styles. Its exploration of the nature of love, how and why it arises, how it shapes our moral character, what it means to be in love, and the limits of reason, have shaped the ideas, images, and attitudes of major philosophers, theologians, writers, poets, and artists from antiquity down to the present day.

In contemporary religious ceremonies, in popular song lyrics, in midnight confessions, in wedding vows -- in short, anywhere one encounters the notion of a truly undying and eternal love, the words of Diotima, Socrates, and the other figures of The Symposium can still be heard.

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Please read the text (about 45 pages) in advance of our discussion.

A well-known translation by Alexander Nehamas and Paul Woodruff can be found in a collection available for download HERE (http://www.theosofie.be/A_PDF/Plato_Complete_Works.pdf) (beginning on page 457), though feel free to use whichever translation you prefer.