Plato's Symposium: The Dialectic of Reason, Love, and Wisdom
Summary
TLDRThe script explores Plato's 'Symposium,' a philosophical dialogue discussing love, reality, and virtue. It sets the stage with a drinking party, where Athenian aristocrats, including Socrates, share speeches on love's nature. The narrative unfolds with various perspectives on love, from heroic inspiration to physical desire, leading to Socrates' profound assertion that love is a spiritual yearning for eternal beauty and wisdom. The dialogue concludes with Alcibiades' interruption, symbolizing the allure of physical beauty over soulful virtue, highlighting the importance of philosophical love over base desires.
Takeaways
- 📚 The script is a detailed discussion on Plato's 'Symposium', highlighting its philosophical depth and poetic beauty.
- 🎭 'Symposium' is a dialogue that combines elements of comedy and high philosophy, exploring themes like love, reality, knowledge, virtue, and the soul.
- 🍷 The setting of 'Symposium' is a drinking party, where Greek intellectuals gather to discuss the nature of love, creating a juxtaposition of drunkenness and intellectual discourse.
- 💭 The dialogue features various speeches by different characters, each offering a unique perspective on love, leading to Socrates' speech which is considered the climax.
- 👥 Key characters include Socrates, Agathon, Phaedrus, Pausanias, Aristophanes, and Alcibiades, each representing different aspects of Athenian culture and thought.
- 🗣️ Socrates' speech, influenced by the teachings of Diotima, presents love as a spiritual force that mediates between the mortal and divine, aiming for beauty and wisdom.
- 🏋️♂️ Socrates contrasts the physical, lustful love described by Aristophanes with a love that seeks eternal values and the perfection of the soul.
- 🧐 Alcibiades' interruption of the symposium with his drunken praise of Socrates reveals the tension between physical beauty and the beauty of the soul.
- 🤔 The dialogue raises questions about the nature of true happiness and the role of philosophy in guiding human emotions and morality.
- 🏛️ The script suggests that the proper organization of one's soul and the cultivation of philosophical thinking are essential for personal and societal well-being.
- 🎭 The 'Symposium' is portrayed as a profound literary achievement that blends tragedy, comedy, art, and philosophy, leaving a lasting impact on the reader.
Q & A
What is the main theme of Plato's Symposium?
-The main theme of Plato's Symposium is the exploration of the concept of love, discussing what love is, how it works, and why it is important in our lives.
Why is Symposium considered one of Plato's most profound and beautiful dialogues?
-Symposium is considered profound and beautiful due to its poetic nature and the way it treats important Platonic themes such as reality, knowledge, virtue, the soul, freedom, slavery, good, and evil, all within the context of a philosophical discussion on love.
Who narrates the events of the Symposium?
-The events of the Symposium are narrated by Apollodorus, who heard about the dinner party from someone who was actually there and decided to commit the account to memory due to its significance.
What is the setting of the Symposium?
-The Symposium is set at a drinking party hosted by Agathon, an Athenian tragic poet, to celebrate his recent victory in a tragedy competition.
Who are some of the key participants in the Symposium's discussion on love?
-Key participants in the Symposium's discussion on love include Agathon, Phaedrus, Pausanias, Aristophanes, Eryximachus, and Socrates, among others.
What is the significance of the order in which the participants give their speeches on love?
-The order of speeches is significant as it builds a conceptual tension, with each speech either raising or decreasing the understanding of love, leading up to Socrates' speech, which is considered the high point of the dialogue.
What does Socrates claim about love in his speech?
-Socrates, drawing from his conversation with Diotima, claims that love is a spirit that mediates between gods and men, yearning for beauty, perfection, and eternity, and is essential for the pursuit of wisdom and virtue.
How does Aristophanes' speech on love differ from the others?
-Aristophanes' speech differs as it presents a mythological account of love, focusing on physical desire and the search for one's other half to regain wholeness, rather than on the spiritual or philosophical aspects of love.
What is the role of Alcibiades in the Symposium?
-Alcibiades, although not giving a speech on love, interrupts the gathering while drunk and provides a commentary on Socrates, revealing his own unrequited love for Socrates and highlighting Socrates' focus on the beauty of the soul over physical appearance.
What is the final outcome of the Symposium?
-The Symposium ends with a mix of comedy and tragedy as the participants, influenced by Alcibiades, abandon their philosophical discussion for excessive drinking and revelry, leaving Socrates to contemplate the nature of art and literature with Agathon and Aristophanes.
Outlines
🎭 Introduction to Plato's Symposium
The video script begins with an introduction to Plato's 'Symposium,' highlighting its significance as a profound and poetic dialogue that explores themes such as reality, knowledge, virtue, the soul, freedom, slavery, good, and evil. The speaker aims to discuss the symposium's nature, the context, the participants, their conversations, and the factors contributing to its status as a classic work of art and philosophy. The 'Symposium' is narrated by Apollodorus, who learned of the event from an attendee and committed the speeches to memory, suggesting the event's importance. The dialogue takes place at a drinking party hosted by the tragic poet Agathon to celebrate his victory in a tragedy competition, attended by influential Athenian gentlemen, including Socrates.
🏛️ Participants and Setting of the Symposium
The script continues to describe the participants of the symposium and the setting. Attendees include Agathon, the host and a celebrated tragic poet; Phaedrus, a handsome and intelligent young man favored by Socrates for his philosophical nature; Pausanias, an aristocratic figure known for his charm and wit; Aristophanes, a renowned comic genius representing both the artistic prowess and the moral failings of Greece; and several other notable individuals. The symposium is characterized as a philosophical drunk, combining elements of low comedy, such as drunkenness, with high philosophy. The attendees recline on couches, a traditional Greek dining setup, and are served large quantities of wine, setting the stage for an evening of intellectual and artistic exploration on the theme of love.
🎭 The Comic and Philosophical Interplay
The script delves into the roles of the participants, particularly Aristophanes, who is portrayed as the anti-Socrates, a hedonistic character who represents the physical and lustful aspects of human nature. His presence adds a layer of irony and comedy to the symposium, as he is both a respected artist and a figure of moral critique. The script also mentions other guests, such as Eryximachus, a doctor who represents the medical metaphor prevalent in Platonic thought, and Alcibiades, a charismatic but morally flawed politician. The symposium's speeches on love are meant to reveal the inner workings of the participants' souls, transitioning from bodily pleasures to the pursuit of higher virtues.
🍷 The Resolve to Stay Sober and Discuss Love
The script describes the participants' initial decision to have a sober evening, intending to engage in a philosophical discussion about love. They agree to give encomia, or speeches in praise of love, to understand its nature and significance in human life. This decision reflects an attempt to prioritize the soul's welfare over bodily pleasures. However, the script also foreshadows the eventual lack of willpower and philosophical understanding that leads them to become intoxicated, highlighting the struggle between the pursuit of virtue and the allure of hedonism.
🏅 Phaedrus' Encomium on Love as a Motivator of Heroic Virtues
The first speech on love is delivered by Phaedrus, who presents love as a divine force that inspires individuals to perform virtuous, famous, and glorious deeds. He cites examples from Homer's works, suggesting that love motivated Achilles and other Homeric heroes to achieve immortal fame and glory through acts of valor in war. Phaedrus' speech positions love as a catalyst for heroic actions, reflecting a 'silver-souled' interpretation that elevates love above common lust while stopping short of the Platonic ideal of love.
💖 Possanias' Enhancement on Love's Role in Soul Harmony
Possanias follows Phaedrus with an improved speech, emphasizing that love is a god-like entity that reconciles discordant elements within our emotional lives, promoting harmony in the soul akin to the harmony found in a healthy body. He also connects love with freedom, autonomy, and virtue, specifically the virtue of the soul rather than the body. Possanias' speech transitions the discussion from the impact of love on actions to its effect on the inner self, moving the dialogue further towards the Platonic conception of love.
🤡 Aristophanes' Comic Struggle and Physical Perspective on Love
Aristophanes takes his turn to speak on love but is initially hampered by hiccups, a comic element that underscores his physicality and lack of control. After receiving a physical remedy from the doctor Eryximachus, Aristophanes presents a myth that explains love as a desire for physical connection, rooted in the search for one's other half after being split by the gods. His speech reflects a purely physical understanding of love, devoid of any mention of the soul, aligning with his character as a devotee of Dionysus and Aphrodite.
🏥 Eryximachus' Speech on Love as the Origin of Medical Art
Eryximachus, the doctor, uses his medical expertise to discuss love's role in creating harmony from discordance, both physically and in the soul. He posits that love is the origin of the medical art, as it demonstrates how to reconcile disharmonious elements in our bodies to achieve health. By extension, love also helps in unifying the dissonant elements of the soul, leading to a harmonious and complete self that is blessed, virtuous, and wise. Eryximachus' speech is a brief but impactful contribution that sets the stage for Aristophanes' return.
🎨 Agathon's Eulogy to Love as the Source of Virtues
Agathon, the host of the symposium, delivers a eulogy to love as a god that embodies wisdom, courage, moderation, and justice—the four cardinal Platonic virtues. His speech, praised for its youthful eloquence, aligns love with virtue and positions it as a divine force. However, Socrates later critiques Agathon's speech as being reminiscent of the sophist Gorgias, implying that despite its appeal, it may lack substance.
🔍 Socrates' Insight on Love as a Mediator Between Gods and Mortals
Socrates presents his understanding of love, learned from the woman Diotima, as a powerful spirit rather than a god, since love is characterized by yearning for perfection and beauty, which gods, being perfect, do not experience. Love, according to Socrates, mediates between the divine and the mortal, connecting the physical with the metaphysical and unifying the discordant elements within our souls. It is a force that drives us towards philosophy, virtue, and the eternal pursuit of beauty and wisdom.
🎭 Alcibiades' Tribute and the Downfall of the Symposium
Alcibiades interrupts the symposium, arriving drunk and inciting the guests to indulge in wine and hedonistic pleasures. His presence symbolizes the Athenian people's preference for physical beauty and charisma over philosophical depth and virtue. Alcibiades' attempt to seduce Socrates is rejected, highlighting Socrates' commitment to the beauty of the soul over the body. The symposium devolves into a drunken revelry, with Socrates remaining the only clear-headed participant, reflecting the broader cultural decline and the triumph of superficiality over wisdom.
📚 The Closing: Socrates' Philosophy Amidst the Debauchery
The symposium concludes with Socrates engaging in a discussion about the nature of art and literature with Alcibiades and Agathon, demonstrating that tragic and comic poets share similar souls and are potentially dangerous due to their verbal gifts. Despite the debauchery, Socrates maintains his composure, covering the intoxicated poets and leaving the symposium to continue his day. The dialogue ends on a somber note, reflecting on the importance of organizing one's soul, respecting philosophy, and pursuing pure and excellent emotions over undisciplined lust.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Symposium
💡Plato
💡Love
💡Socrates
💡Diotima
💡Agathon
💡Aristophanes
💡Alcibiades
💡Philosophy
💡Virtue
Highlights
Plato's Symposium is a profound and beautiful dialogue that explores themes of reality, knowledge, virtue, the soul, freedom, slavery, good, and evil.
The dialogue is narrated by Apollodorus, who heard about the dinner party from someone who was actually present.
The Symposium is a philosophical drunk, combining elements of low comedy and high philosophy around the theme of love.
Agathon, a tragic poet, hosts the Symposium, celebrating his victory in a tragedy competition, and invites influential Athenian gentlemen.
The guests recline on couches, engaging in a relaxed and luxurious activity that involves drinking wine and discussing love.
Fidris, a young man representing Athenian culture, is a favorite of Socrates for his philosophical nature and dialectical skills.
Aristophanes, the greatest of the Greek comedians, represents the anti-Socratic view and is known for his hedonistic lifestyle.
Eryximachus, a doctor, speaks on love as the origin of the medical art, uniting disharmonious elements in the body and soul.
Socrates' speech, based on lessons from Diotima, presents love as a spirit that mediates between the gods and men, yearning for beauty and perfection.
Alcibiades, a democratic politician, interrupts the Symposium drunk and praises Socrates, revealing his unrequited love and Socrates' focus on inner beauty.
The dialogue ends with a discussion on the nature of art and literature, with Socrates engaging with Agathon and Aristophanes.
The Symposium highlights the importance of organizing one's soul and the significance of philosophy in a political order.
The dialogue contrasts the undisciplined, lustful emotions of the 'bronze men' with the pure and excellent emotions that should guide morality.
Socrates' ability to maintain his sobriety despite heavy drinking demonstrates his well-organized soul and philosophical intellect.
The Symposium is a universal literary achievement, blending tragedy, comedy, high art, and low humor while exploring profound philosophical teachings.
The dialogue suggests that the true attractiveness and loveliness lie in the qualities of the soul rather than the body.
Transcripts
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
plato's symposium is one of the most
profound and beautiful of the platonic
dialogues
of all the dialogues in the platonic
corpus it's the one that is probably the
most poetic
and at the same time it contains within
it
a treatment of reality knowledge virtue
the soul freedom slavery good evil a
remarkable
concordance
of important platonic themes come
together in the symposium
and what i'd like to do first
is talk about what a symposium is and
what the context of this dialogue is
and i'd like to talk about the people
who participate in it specifically the
people who spend their time
talking to socrates
and after that i'd like to talk about
what it is they say in specific
and then finally i'd like to talk about
what makes this a truly classic a truly
great work of art and philosophy at the
same time
possibly the hardest thing in the world
to do
is to write a great work of art or a
great work of philosophy but to write to
create a great work of art and a great
work of philosophy at the same time
requires a consummate genius and that's
why this is one of plato's most
important dialogues
it's perhaps second only to the republic
in terms of philosophical depth and it's
second to none in terms of poetic beauty
in the first case
the symposium was not narrated by
someone that was actually there it's
narrated by a guy named apollodorus
and he heard about this
wonderful dinner party
from someone that was actually there
and he got a good record of the speeches
that people gave
and he decided that the account that he
heard of this dinner party was so
sublime so perfect so important that he
committed it to memory
and for that reason alone it suggested
something important unusual was
happening at this dinner party this
philosophical meeting of great greek
intellects
what happens is something like this
the symposium and symposium is not just
a dinner party it's a drinking party
it's a party in which people intend to
go to get intoxicated something on the
order of a bachelor party nowadays it's
the kind of party where you go and drink
intentionally drinking beyond social
drinking drinking excessively that's
part of the entertainment so the
symposium is a kind of philosophical
drunk
all right and there's a tremendous comic
element in combining low comedy
such as drunkenness and hysteria and the
kind of crazy activities that you get
when people become intoxicated
and high philosophy high art
and the theme is perhaps the most
sublime and important in the platonic
corpus the theme is love
what love is how love works
what sort of approach we should take
towards love and why it is important in
our lives and in all lives
a remarkable
intellectual and artistic achievement
is what we're going to encounter today
a number of gentlemen athenian
aristocrats essentially the best
influential wealthy
well-established gentleman get together
at the house
of a man named agathon now agathon is a
tragic poet
the symposium that he's holding at his
house is a kind of celebration for the
fact
that he has just won a prize for
producing the best tragedy in the
competition that they hold for tragedies
each year in athens so he's become a
famous kind of best-selling author and
he's gotten the applause of all the
citizens of athens some 30 000 people
went to see this
series of plays he wrote and apparently
the tragedies were so fine that he
carried off first prize
so it's at a poet's house it's among
literary men
and agathon himself is feeling very good
very proud of himself proud of his
achievements and he wants to share his
joy with his friends so he invites a
bunch of them over and we get to meet
some of the great literary and
philosophical intellects of greece or
athens at the time
and agathon is certainly none
not second to none as far as these go
in addition to agathon the host of the
evening there are
probably 10 or 15 others at this party
and you have to remember what the
kind of the geography of the greek
dining room is like before you realize
what's going on here they don't sit at a
big table the way do we do a
thanksgiving dinner they don't sit down
and use knives and forks they recline on
couches so it's a very relaxed luxurious
kind of a of an activity and if you're
going to get drunk it's already it's
nice to be horizontal when you start out
because that way if you're going to be
drinking to excess you don't have any
place to fall to
so they're all going to sit around the
table and slaves are going to wait on
them and they're going to be brought
large quantities of wine and they're
going to drink
to toast the success of agathon in the
theater
so
these gentlemen get together we get
agathon in addition there are a number
of people who don't talk but among the
speakers there are some excellent
creatures excellent examples of the
greek literary mind there's a young man
named fidris
fiedris is the interlocutor is the
respondent in one of the great platonic
dialogues he is a clever intelligent
handsome well-spoken young man
he represents the best in athenian
culture
and he is a particular favorite of
socrates because he has a philosophical
nature he is dialectical he is a good
thinker he's a good talker and he's just
the sort of guy we'd want to invite in
to get his views on love
if you ever get a chance to read the
corpus of the platonic dialogues and
you're looking at the symposium and i
hope that you do after hearing this
lecture you should certainly turn to the
theodorus as well the theorist is also
concerned with the topic of love and
it's not accidental that fidris is going
to be here and he's going to be able to
give a speech on the topic of love
in addition to fidris
and agathon we also have paul sannias
paulsanius is an important and
quasi-aristocratic figure he
participates in greek intellectual and
philosophical discussion and he too is
represents the best in athenian society
handsome charming literate well-spoken
witty just the sort of man we want into
a platonic dialogue
in addition to these two we have
aristophanes the greatest of the greek
comedians any of you read aristophanes
if you have he represents
the comic genius of greece
the dramatic artistic genius of greece
and in plato's eyes he also represents
all that's wrong with greece
he represents the man who is entirely
given up to bronze pleasures there's a
wonderful line when our esophagus is
first introduced in the dialogue someone
suggested says that aristophanes is a
very pious man on account of the fact
that he spent his whole life
worshiping dionysus and aphrodite
which means that he's a chronic drunk
and a woman chaser
which shows you just how pious he is
all right so we've made not only
divinities of our vices but we've also
decided to create art which will justify
them and perhaps give these vices to
other people aristophanes is the bad
poet of the republic who must be
censored because his poetry drives
people from ignorance to worst ignorance
from mere ignorance to outright vice so
aristophanes
is going to
play a very important part in the
symposium he is in some respects the
anti-socrates
he is a man who is not only a bronze man
but he knows what he's doing and he
likes it
all right he's
hedonistic and he's got an attitude
about it he's just had to tell everyone
else that this is the only way worth
living the satisfaction of vehement
desires one after another as much as
conceivably possible is what it means to
be a human being
now in the republic socrates had a
name for people like this
and when you collect them together in a
big bunch they form a city and this is
the city of swine
and aristophanes is pig number one
he's the greatest of pigs he's an
articulate pig he's a poetic pig he's a
gifted pig which is what makes him a
dangerous pig
yes aristophanes is going to get his not
only aristotle he's a dangerous man and
not only is he a pig but he's also had
the temerity the nerve to write a play
about socrates it's called the clouds
has any if you're going to read the
clouds what it is is a kind of lampoon
of greek philosophy in particular
socrates is in that play and socrates is
mocked scorned made to seem a foolish
man who's been inquiring into things
that no man could possibly understand or
have any good use for no aristophanes
has lampooned socrates and now in this
dialogue plato is going to
go for payback now aristophanes gets his
so since aristophanes isn't writing this
he's going to have to say whatever plato
wants him to say and he's going to say
kind of grunting swinish things all
through this and people are going to
find him very interesting and intriguing
but he's going to pay one after another
all the qualities which are attributed
to aristophanes here are the qualities
which we are going to associate with the
bronze man the tyrannical man the evil
man
and what makes him worse is that not
only is he bronze evil and tyrannical
he's also the sort of man that
talks very well as well all right so not
only is he articulate
but he's also articulate in an evil way
so taken together that's the worst
possible combination of human
characteristics the anti-socrates makes
his appearance
also
irony is a constant literary trophy in
this as in all the platonic dialogues
and one of the great ironies of this
piece of work is that the comedian is
going to provide us with comic relief
the comedian turns out to be the clown
and we're going to make fun of him all
through this this is going to be
at the same time
hilarious comedy and also high art and
also among the greatest works of greek
philosophy an amazing intellectual
achievement
now let's go to our other guests we have
a couple of other important ones
we have one named eric simakis eric
simicus is a doctor and as soon as you
hear the word doctor in any of the
platonic dialogues always freeze right
because doctoring and medicine are big
metaphors in the republic and they're
essential metaphors in all of platonic
thinking as soon as you hear the word
doctor you should think is he a doctor
of the body or a doctor of the soul well
it turns out in this case eric simakis
is a regular old doctor he's a doctor of
the body when you get hurt when your arm
gets broken he fixes you if you get a
disease he cures you he takes care of
bodies
if you remember from the republic
socrates is the doctor of souls
socrates is the man who diagnoses soul
sickness prescribes remedies for the
sicknesses of the soul
well the tension the conflict and the
resolution of such conflicts between
body and soul is in some respect the
main theme of the symposium and we are
going to find a transition from the man
who is merely a doctor of bodies to a
man who is a doctor of souls from a
concern with the welfare of the body to
concern with the welfare of the soul
from a concern with pleasures of this
world to pleasures of the higher
superior world
from concerns about the cave and its
shadows to concerns about ultimate
reality
an amazing intellectual achievement
beyond eric simicus and aristophanes and
agathon we are also going to have
a number of other interlocutors most of
whom are given the chance to give a
speech
and all these speeches lead up to
socrates socrates speech is going to be
in some respects the high point of this
dialogue and his praise of love will be
the true praise of love which will show
all these earlier attempts at rhetoric
to be inferior to be not based upon true
knowledge and true understanding
and although that would seem like a
logical way of concluding this dialogue
it doesn't end there because we're going
to go for a complete comic resolution of
all these tensions at the end of the
dialogue alcibiades perhaps the greatest
of the bad greeks
makes an appearance and he's stone drunk
he's howling drunk when he arrives and
he introduces his typical decorum to the
party
as a result we move from
sobriety to intoxication we move from
philosophy to
hedonism
we move
down the divided line so that socrates
has been so laborious trying to bring us
up
so alcibiades will come in at the end of
it and if you know through these
peloponnesian wars alcibiades is one of
the most important of the democratic
greek politicians
alcibiades has everything in the world
going for him he is rich
he is handsome he is intelligent he is
articulate the only drawback is that he
is bad he is very very bad he is a lover
of pleasure he is a lover of honors he
is a lover of anything except the things
that socrates thinks he ought to love
which is knowledge wisdom and virtue he
is a particular friend of socrates
and
he has a great deal to say about
socrates he is going to be the only one
who does not give a speech about the
nature of love he will give us a speech
about the nature of socrates
and his speech and praise of socrates
will resolve and connect many of the
philosophical themes that are proposed
in the republic and are continued in the
symposium
parenthetically before i go on to the
actual plot of the discipline or plot of
the dialogue
all of the platonic dialogues fit
together they mesh together like parts
of a jigsaw puzzle they do not exist by
themselves the way a particular piece of
music from say beethoven will all of
these connect to each other the
metaphors that are established in the
republic like the myth of the cave or
the gold silver and bronze in your soul
will be recapitulated and reviewed in
great dialogues like the symposium and
all of them presuppose each other they
form a kind of circle a kind of ring in
which one idea is connected to the other
and together they form an entire
comprehension an entire assessment of
the human condition so make no mistake
when i come and do this symposium i'm
really doing platonic ideas just in this
particular instantiation and they're
really going to have everything to do
with what you heard last time when we
reviewed the republic
so let's think about
the actual plot they're all getting
together at agathon's house and socrates
has been going there but all of a sudden
on the way
he falls into a bit of abstraction he
starts to think and the problem with
soccer is he thinks a little too much
it's not normal it's not healthy
and he's just sitting there in wrapped
attention
like this
his friend decides to go on without him
it's very hard to drag socrates in like
this
as a consequence he's late for the party
when the other
members of the party arrive at the
symposium
one of them says well what kind of a
party are we going to have tonight
judgment or what last night's party was
like and most of them say no
right because they've been drinking
excessively at that point so none of
them remember what last night's party is
like and one of them says are you sure
you want to drink heavily tonight i'm
really still hungover from yesterday
and all them say you know i also am
hungover from yesterday and i'll tell
you i just can't keep the pace up that
we're living we're drinking heavily we
really are having a very good time we're
pursuing pleasure with a kind of
frenzied abandoned because we know no
other good so they decide
not because they're drawn to the good
not because they're drawn to moderation
but because it's just too hard on the
body and mind or the body and the mental
faculties that they're going to have a
sober evening
now the irony here of course is that
later on in the evening they're all
going to get drunk
because they haven't got the willpower
they haven't got the philosophical
knowledge they haven't got the
healthiness of the soul which allows
them to achieve the platonic virtues but
they're trying their best they say at
least while our bodies won't put up with
it we'll try and stay sober for a while
in particular eric simicus our doctor
he says gentlemen
i'd like to point out to you now that
we've decided to have a sober evening
that overindulgence indulgence in
alcohol is a very bad thing for the
human body note the emphasis on the
human body it's a very bad thing for the
human body and he says furthermore that
i can never be part of any intent to
consume excessive amounts of alcohol
particularly when i'm still hungover
from last night
right constant juxtaposition of low
comedy and high philosophical thought is
what makes us one of the great works of
art in the western tradition
well they sit down and socrates
eventually arrives after the dinner has
already been served the symbolic import
being the socrates is not terribly
concerned with food or drink he's
concerned with taking care of his soul
which is why he stayed where he was
thinking about things until he
continued and completed the thought that
he had socrates soul comes first all the
rest of these guys they get together and
body comes first they eat they drink
they sit down and they decide that
they're going to have a sober evening
because they have no choice their bodies
won't hold up to it as soon as they
decide to have a sober evening they also
decide to get rid of the flute girl the
flute girl is a hired prostitute but
since their sex lives are as scandalous
as their you know as their consumption
of alcohol they've decided that look
they have to moderate themselves a
little bit out of physical necessity
rather than out of philosophical
obligation
we're going to get rid of alcohol for
the time being we're going to get rid of
sex for the time being and we're going
to move into the realm of pure
discussion
and what they decide to do is hold a
discussion on love
what they propose to do is all sitting
around this table drinking a little bit
of wine for the sake of refreshment not
of course to get drunk
they're going to discuss love and
they're going to try and discern what
love is how you find out about love what
properties love has and why we ought to
be concerned with love why is love an
important element in human life
and so they agree that they're all going
to give encomia on love
an encomium is a speech in praise of
someone right and they're in comey on
love
are going to try and capture what makes
love important why love should be of
concern to either the philosophical
person or the one that just wants to dry
out for the evening
and in either case
their statements about love will tell us
a great deal about the workings of their
inner psyche about what sort of men they
are you can almost say that you can find
out about a person by the sort of things
that they love and the sort of love that
they have and that that tells you all
you need to know about the inner
workings of the soul and of course this
transition from their body to their soul
to find out what the real marrow of them
is is the essence of platonism and what
the platonic dialogues are all about
they're all concerned with soul rather
than body
there are seven speeches
socrates that's cleanup he comes in
sixth
and then at the end we'll get alcibiades
the first speech is by fiedris now
friedrichs is a handsome intelligent
articulate young man
and he gives a very what we might call a
silver souled interpretation of love
love peter says is a god a god that
inspires us to do virtuous famous
glorious things and he gives some
examples of the kind of virtuous famous
glorious things that love inspires us to
do and he quotes from homer saying that
achilles motivated by love would never
do anything dishonorable and won himself
immortal fame and glory among all human
beings because he was motivated by love
love motivates in other words the heroic
man to the homeric virtues the virtues
of achilles the virtues of the homeric
heroes the men who were valorous in war
never were afraid were completely
courageous maybe not especially smart
not terribly philosophical but it
allowed them at least to do glorious
things in other words love allows us to
move from bronze concerns in life to
silver concerns
it takes us halfway up because his
conception of love is a halfway house
between
common lust and the platonic conception
of love which we will get at the end so
we're moving halfway up the divided line
here
love in feeders is you it's an
incomplete but still noble-minded view
is that which motivates us which prods
us and stimulates us to do heroic
actions
now fidris gives a lovely speech it's
moving and thank god it's short he runs
right through it tells us that love
makes us do wonderful things and
everyone's very pleased with the young
man he's acquitted himself quite well
obviously talking with socrates as he
does
in the other dialogue called the
theaters has done him some good he may
not know everything but at least he can
talk all right
fidris finishes his speech
and the next speech is by a another man
named possanias and posanius gives a
very fine speech which improves on the
speech of fidris it's worth noting here
that each one of these speeches improves
or falls back from the earlier speech
you can think of the symposium as being
organized the way a piece of classical
music is organized there is a kind of
conceptual tension between the speeches
and you are either raising that tension
by increasing the volume and tempo of
the ideas or you are decreasing the temp
the tempo decreasing the connection by
sliding off into some absurd kind of
speech which will happen when we do with
the next speech but let's come back to
possanias possanius tells us something
very important
possanias tells us
that love is a god which is a very
important idea that it's not it's
something divine it's not merely human
and in addition not only is love of god
but love somehow helps us reconcile
the different elements in our emotional
life
and love in some respect
allows us to unify the dissonant
elements in our psyche it allows us to
create a harmony of the soul
analogous to the harmony that we might
get in a healthy body
in addition to that he says that love is
somehow connected with freedom and
autonomy and virtue which is very
important because the kind of virtue
we're talking about here is the virtue
of the soul it is not the homeric virtue
of the body it doesn't mean turning
yourself into arnold schwarzenegger
return means turning yourself into
someone that is good of soul not of body
that's what's important about paul
stannis's speech he improves on the
speech of fidris
by moving the discussion from the
effects of
love on one's actions to the effective
one of love on one's soul on one's inner
self
possanias allows us to move on up the
divided line away from body towards soul
and that's what's important about him
now falseness gives a very nice speech
he quits himself quite well and now it's
aristophane's turn aristophanes the
great comedian is now to become the
great clown
aristophanes is about to give a
wonderful speech about love and
doubtless he knows a great deal about
love because he's constantly worshiping
dionysus and aphrodite
right he's a drunken woman chaser so he
knows all about it doubtless
and
he would like to but he's been
overeating and over drinking so he gets
the hiccups and he's constantly doing
this and he's hiccuping he can't talk
hiccupping in this case is symbolic it's
not just funny and it is funny because
the idea of a guy trying to give a
lovely eloquent speech and having the
hiccups because he's a drunk all right
undercuts the seriousness and the
gravity of the theme we're discussing in
addition to that it turns out that he
doesn't know what to do he has to ask
eric simakus you're the doctor
help me out i'm choking i have i need
some help i can't give the speech please
what can i do eric simakis the doctor of
bodies prescribes go gargle with water
and if you can't gargle with water go
tickle your nostrils with a feather so
you'll sneeze sneezing another kind of
reaction another kind of spasm alcibiade
or not alcibiades but aristophanes here
is made to be seen as the man that is
nothing but physical he is a set of
responses
to physical stimuli he hiccups he laughs
he sneezes he pops around the room
constantly pray to physical stimuli he
almost is a man without a soul he's the
ultimate swine and he's happy like that
too he doesn't know what it would be
like to miss
having a soul he's a pig
so naturally our pig
needs a physical cure and he's going to
get that from the doctor eric simakus so
he goes in and tickles his nostril with
a feather and while he's in there
performing this glorious operation eric
simkus decides to take his place
in the speeches and eric simakus our
doctor of souls or our doctor of bodies
says
in continuing the argument that had been
put together by possanias he says that
not only
does love reconcile discordant elements
in the body it also reconciles
discordant elements in the soul
since eric simacus is a doctor he says
that love is actually the origin of the
medical art because it shows us how to
reconcile
disharmonious elements in our physical
structure to create the thing we call
health of the body
in addition to that by a kind of
extrapolation
love also allows us to glue together the
opposite and dissonant elements of the
soul to form a harmonious complete whole
which makes us both blessed and virtuous
and wise
so for eric simicus love is a god love
is a god which allows us to create
harmony out of dissonance
which allows us to create unity out of
plurality
which allows us to create
human being out of the comings and
goings out of the out of human becoming
it allows us to create something
permanent
and eternal
it asks us to perfect ourselves and to
protect those that we love
so eric simeka's speech is very moving
it's a very beautiful speech and
it's rather brief
and it just serves to fill in until
aristophanes can be brought out and
lampooned he's back now erickson
michaels is just about finished with his
speech and we bring in aristophanes the
low comedian
and he points out immediately that
eriksen because you're a wonderful
doctor i was in there sneezing and
having these various spasms hiccuping
and now i'm back and i'm ready to talk
one of the most important ironies here
is that aristophanes speech will be
another series of verbal hiccups
it will be a series of spasms that he
doesn't cannot control and does not
understand and nobody else understands
them either
he is going to make up a series of myths
which he believes accounts for love but
it only accounts for aristophanes kind
of love it accounts for the physical the
animal the brutal sort of love it
accounts for bronze love love in the
sense of lust love in the sense of the
copulation of animals rather than the
union of human beings
it is physical love
and aristophanes gives us a wonderful
myth and it's just like poets when they
don't know what they're talking about to
think of some myth that's dangerous to
themselves and dangerous to others that
it indicates their complete lack of
understanding of the nature of
philosophy and virtue and goodness
funny issues turn out to be aristophanes
the man who doesn't like socrates
works out very nicely
well
what our stephanie says is this
way back many many years ago at the very
beginning of time people didn't look
like they do now no
they were smacked together
so that they had in fact two heads
four arms
four legs and they all used to get
around by doing cartwheels you know the
way clowns do at the circus right well
lots of people used to look promote
themselves way back when when we were
smack together and there were three
kinds of sex back then there were
combinations of two men
there were combinations of two women
and there were combinations of man and
woman
and these creatures
are actually our ancestors they are what
we are descended from
and that is the perfect human being in
other words as we are now we are not as
we were at one time
and we are somehow limited partial
incomplete
and this has everything to do with
mythology and love
according to aristophanes the myth goes
something like this
back in the beginning of time when we
all had two legs four arms four heads or
two legs four arms and four
legs
back then
we tried to usurp the position of the
gods we were all sublimely happy because
in this connection of bodies that we
have where the arms and the legs form
one big hole and we all go cartwheeling
around it's analogous or very similar to
a situation which we are constantly
joined in sexual connection in other
words back in the in the good old days
people had sex all the time constantly
and as a matter of that they couldn't
help but have sex because they were
physically literally joined together it
wasn't possible to stop having sex
aristotle thinks that's great he can't
wait to go back to that he'd love it
it really pleases him to death and of
course it's low comedy no doubt
but because we were so sublimely happy
we decided to use serve for our position
and try and climb mount olympus and take
away the position of the gods to force
the gods out and to make gods of
ourselves
this made zeus very upset
and zeus was so upset he sent down
thunderbolts and decided to split human
beings into two parts into parts that
you and i are now only one head per
person only two arms per person only two
legs
split the human
being into two
and thereafter
to teach them a lesson
move the heads around so they're looking
in the opposite direction move the
genitals up
and then allow them to locomote on two
legs
instead of cartwheeling around the way
they used to
and as a consequence of this
the human condition is one of
incompletion we are not complete we are
not finished we constantly go about
looking for our other half
and this for aristophanes is what love
is it is not a god the way it was in the
earlier speeches it is a desire it is a
desire to have physical bodily
connection with something else that is
the object of your desire and it is
because you are not complete as you are
aristophanes discussion is exclusively
related to bodies it has no mention of
souls whatever because aristophanes is a
pig and doesn't know that he has a soul
mate hell he may not have a soul
so aristophanes is concerned with the
union of bodies and with legitimizing
and accounting for why we have such a
tremendous lust to connect in a physical
way or maybe he's trying to say that's
why he has such
a lust to connect in a purely physical
way since he's been such a devotee of
dionysus and aphrodite
perhaps what aristophanes is doing here
is trying to create a myth which
legitimizes the uncontrolled lust
and the crazy lunatic passion the frenzy
of physical desire that characterizes
aristophanes whole life
the neglect of the philosophical
development of one's soul
in preference to continuous vehement
gratification of desire
so in other words aristophanes here is
creating a lying myth which tells us why
he is the way he is and which takes his
behavior his constant pursuit of
pleasure both in the cup and in the bed
as being not only normal but desirable
given the way the gods constructed the
world a very convenient myth if you
think about it
now at the end of his
myth it's a very entertaining idea but
he says that now all the people in the
world are either heterosexual
or there are women who are homosexual
and there are men who are homosexual and
he accounts for heterosexuality
homosexuality and women and
homosexuality in men by referring back
to what they were originally
whoever you were originally separated
from when the god split you off well of
course you're looking to connect up with
that once again and once you find that
you can't imagine anything would make
you happier than doing that
now aristophanes has some important
things to tell us about the gods here
this is an important religious myth
if we don't give appropriate sacrifices
to the gods and if we show them any kind
of disrespect
zeus may well take it in his head one
day to drop a thunderbolt on us as we
are split us right down the middle and
then we'll just be one leg hopping
around and we'll have to find three
people to have sex with
and that'll be a very inconvenient thing
so instead of doing that what we're
going to end up doing is trying to get
beyond that and the only way that we're
going to be able to do that
is by saying
yes we love the gods we think they're
wonderful and we hope that if we're
really good to them and if we give them
the right kind of sacrifices the gods
will be thoughtful enough to rejoin us
we can constantly have sex all the time
that's what hope is for if you are
really hopeful and you're really good to
the gods the gods will do you a big
favor and allow you to have sex
constantly that's
aristophanes idea of human felicity of
human happiness he's a pig
now let's get beyond aristophanes the
next one who replies to him and it's
funny that aristotle says i don't want
to be making jokes about my speech
although he likes to laugh at everyone
else he's very vain and doesn't like
people to laugh at him and of course
there's so many ironies written into him
if you stop and think about it have a
look at the symposium sometimes he's far
and away the most common character
the next speech comes from
a gentleman named agathon he's the guy
who leads who owns the house and he's
having the party he gives a lovely
speech
and what's lovely about the speech is
that it says that
love is a god so we're going to move
away from the from the devaluation of
love that we get with aristophanes again
we're moving up the ladder the next
speech we get with agathon says that
love is a god
that it is the source of wisdom courage
moderation and justice which just
happened to be the four cardinal
platonic virtues that were sketched out
in the republic it didn't get into the
symposium by accident in fact it got
there because this the platonic corpus
forms one whole set of ideas an entire
approach to the human condition
so we find out that love is full of
virtue and that love is a god and such
like things and then he closes up his
love little speech and people clap for
him because they thought that his
youthful eloquence had been very moving
and he acquitted himself very well now
socrates comes up and in his own ironic
way says
agathon i think that was a wonderful
speech a wonderful speech it reminds me
of a guy named gorgeous gorgeous is one
of the great sophists one of the great
liars one of the great professional
pleaders in greece and when socrates
says that's a wonderful speech it
reminds me of gorgeous right what he's
really saying is that's a dreadful
speech but i haven't got quite time to
straighten all the points out he has a
quick question and answer with him and
it almost immediately proves that
agathon doesn't know what he's talking
about and it's all gibberish
but at the end of his second he says
well even if it is gibberish don't worry
about that it was a wonderful speech
well we move right into socrates speech
what socrates says is that he learned
what he knows about love from a woman
named diotma and a dyathma taught him
that love is not a god because gods are
perfect and love still has yearning in
it he yearns for perfection it yearns
for beauty it yearns for completion and
the gods yearn for nothing because they
are whole and perfect so love is not a
god and yet love is not pure animal lust
the way it is for aristophanes love is a
spirit a very powerful spirit it is a
spirit which connects heaven and earth
it is a spirit which connects the
profane and the sacred
it is a spirit which connects the
physical and the metaphysical it is a
spirit which unifies the dissonant
elements in our soul
and in the discipline and it unifies the
dissonant elements in our relations to
other people
love then is something that mediates
between the gods and men
now what's interesting about this is
that most of these earlier speeches
about love had been at least implicitly
homosexual
socrates speech indicates that he
learned about love from a woman named
diatna
which is a move away from that
homosexuality but it's not a move
towards heterosexuality don't get this
wrong socratic love
has almost nothing to do with sex in
other words it has a physical component
to it but only the most attenuated
element of physical connection
socratic love is a union of souls
socratic love is an attempt to create
something permanent amidst the change of
human life
socratic love is an attempt to connect
at the level of souls and because the
soul has no gender the connection of
souls is neither heterosexual nor
homosexual it is only in a very
attenuated and metaphorical way sexual
at all it is the communion of two souls
in an attempt to create something
eternal and perfect and divine it is an
attempt to create perfection in your own
soul and in the soul of your beloved
there is the wonderful passage in which
socrates says that he learned from
that love is the yearning for eternity
it's the longing for immortality and
that's a beautiful poetic line it's one
of the greatest lines in the history of
philosophy
love is the yearning for eternity it
explains a lot of things you ever seen a
a schoolboy
carve a
heart into a tree and say john and jane
forever
it's easy enough to see how john and
jane got there but you always wonder
about the forever and why that should
occur to a school boy and every school
boy
it's because when we fall in love
there's something in us that learns that
this should go on forever
and that amidst the comings and goings
the construction and the destruction
the development and the retrogression of
human life and human things it offers us
a glimpse at something permanent and
eternal and perfect
and in fact when we fall in love with
someone else
we are not falling in love with their
body we are not falling in love with the
meat that's there we are falling in love
with their soul
and we are falling in love with their
soul only insofar as that soul gestures
as something permanent and eternal and
perfect and universal and that is the
form of the beautiful if you remember
the last lecture where professor ricci
explained to you the platonic theory of
forms the divided line we move up the
ladder out of the cave to the realm of
light well one of the things that is up
in that realm of forms is the perfectly
attractive thing the perfectly lovely
thing the perfectly excellent thing and
that is the form of the beautiful a
perfect eternal transcendent beauty
that all people recognize and cannot
help but wish to possess forever
their lover anytime you fall in love
you'll notice
that nobody else sees why your lover is
as beautiful as you think they are
the reason why is that they're looking
at the body and you're looking at the
soul you see something or at least
what's hinted here is that something
that goes on forever and that only your
mind your soul can apprehend bodies have
nothing to do with it or next to nothing
to do with it it gives you a stimulus
towards thinking about the loveliness of
an individual soul from the loveliness
of an individual soul
you extrapolate and move up to the
loveliness in many souls and then from
the loveliness in many souls to the
loveliness in the human soul in general
and from the loveliness in the human
soul the loveliness to knowledge to
eternal things you are moving up
the
cave moving out of the realm of shadows
and appearances towards reality
in teaching him this doctrine called
pursuit of beauty
this this loving desire to create
something permanent and eternal
calls it the ladder of beauty the ladder
of beauty
is a kind of
intrinsically attractive force that
perfect love
generates in us it forces up us up out
of the cave
out of the world of shadows to the realm
of final appearances
consider the following case
go back to your grandparents
your grandparents when they're married
were probably 20 years old and they're
probably both beautiful perfectly to
adolescence
if they were still in love at 70 it's
not because they were still beautiful
what they fell in love with was each
other's souls
and the soul goes on forever and even if
they are not beautiful any longer they
still see a kind of beauty there it
hints it to them as something that goes
on forever and that's why it's possible
to love someone that isn't physically
around anymore
because love real love refers to the
soul and not the body and whether the
body is there is more or less irrelevant
once you've found the truth beauty and
the true love the true wisdom
love drives us on
towards
philosophy towards virtue towards
perfection
that's the message of socrates learned
from diatoma it is very clear that
socrates is still in love with dharma
and that in fact the interaction that
they had between their souls and
learning about the true nature of love
is a perfect instantiation of what
platonic love is
the re-interaction in words between
socrates and diagna
that is to discourse
what sex is to bodies in other words
bodily sex generates physical
immortality by creating progeny
soul sex
creates immortality by the construction
of perfect beauty perfect knowledge
perfect virtue perfect human excellence
diatoma
and
her teachings have made socrates able to
understand
that the path
to knowledge and virtue and wisdom
is paved with love and that we will not
have the possibility of moving up
the divided line out of the cave into
philosophical clarity until and unless
we manage to
love in the way that plato suggests that
human beings are capable in a way that's
that aristophanes could not even imagine
now at the end of socrates speech and
it's a wonderful speech because it
implicitly criticizes aristophanes it
offers us one of the most profound and
moving accounts of love in the western
tradition
the next thing and the last speech that
we're going to get
is that of alcibiades alcibiades the man
who helped destroy his culture
alcibiades the democratic politician
everyone thinks he's attractive charming
wonderful interesting and lovely the
only difficulty is is that he is not a
philosopher and he's a very very bad man
alcibiades is also in love with socrates
and he wants to have sex with socrates
it's actually spurns him because he has
a beautiful body and an ugly soul
and that drives our st that drives
alcibiades wild the vanity overtakes him
and he flies into a rage he cannot
control himself whenever he deals with
socrates he bursts into the party at the
end of socrates speech drunk
howling drunk and again this is the man
that everyone admires the man who can't
control himself whatever he comes in and
says gentlemen i can't believe you're
all sober let's get good and drunk and
here this is the critical turning point
in the dialogue socrates with his speech
has been trying to bring these gentlemen
these men up from the realm of
appearance to the realm of reality and
now they have to make a choice will they
go for the man with the beautiful soul
or will they go for the man with the
beautiful body they go body immediately
and they all start drinking
and what socrates to think what's the
point of talking to these people
i mean they're sober now what's the
point of talking once they get drunk
one of the funny lines in this one of
the most ironic lines in this
piece of work is that socrates drinks
heavier than anyone because they insist
that he do so but he never gets drunk
ever
which tells you something about the man
with a well-organized soul about the
truly philosophical intellect
well
drinking begins
and then our
alcibiades is persuaded
to give an encomium on socrates and
talks about his relations with socrates
and it turns out that alcibiades thinks
very highly of himself that he wishes to
have socrates as a lover and he's tried
to seduce socrates several times the
only difficulty is that socrates laughs
at him which is something that someone
like alcibiades cannot cope with he's
very vain he's handsome he's witty he's
articulate he looks like robert redford
and socrates turns him down
and that crushes him instead socrates
says well to tell you the truth i'm
looking for beautiful souls and you have
a beautiful body and your soul is really
ugly on the other hand socrates is known
for his physical ugliness he looks like
a seder he's short he's fat he's balding
he's got a flat nose he's an ugly guy
why is it that everyone seems to fall in
love with him it goes to show you that a
philosophical soul will out and that in
fact the true loveliness and the true
attractiveness is to be found in
qualities of soul not body
so ours so also by this gives a a long
and comey about socrates says that he's
like a seder marxist
it's like a statue of the gods salinas
and inside the statue when you take the
top off what you find out is actually
little replicas of the gods inside this
is a recapitulation of the difference
between body and soul when you take
socrates body away and you look at the
soul you see that inside that ugly body
is a beauty of soul that nothing else in
the room nothing else in the world can
match
and he says that's how you bewitch
people socrates
when you start talking to them you give
them the best speeches in the world and
there's something attractive about that
that no one can argue with not even me
and i'm beautiful
that's very hard for him to deal with
the consequence
of his interaction with socrates is that
he feels ashamed of himself that he says
that maybe i shouldn't be engaged in
democratic politics maybe i should
perfect my soul now the subtext here is
this
this is being written after the
peloponnesian wars
one of the key figures in the
peloponnesian wars the wars between
sparta and athens is alcibiades at a
critical junction in the war he goes up
in front of the people and makes a
wonderful speech
persuading them that the only thing to
do is to attack syracuse which is an
important city that's in sicily and this
expedition is a complete disaster and
this expedition loses the war and as a
consequence of the advice of alcibiades
his entire culture is destroyed
so it seems that a man who is passionate
and yet who has no
concern with developing his soul and
with learning and with learning true
knowledge is going to be bad for himself
and bad for his culture he will harm
himself he will harm the people that
care for him
socrates is trying to persuade him to
give up politics
socrates is trying to make a good man of
him and he'll have none of it
and
the bad influence that he exerts when he
comes in
makes all the other people who've been
listening to him stop drinking start
drinking
makes all the other people who've been
listening to him say my aren't you
lovely aren't you beautiful we'd like to
talk to you and listen to you
and at the end of it all the quorum
breaks up
at the end of alpha valley's speech a
whole flood of revelers comes in these
represent the athenian people the deimos
and they're all drunk and they're all
rowdy and they're all sliding on in and
there's a lot of messing around there's
a terrific amount of noise all decorum
is lost serious intellectual discussion
is lost and it turns into a big drunk
now of course
socrates sitting there having no choice
but to drink with these gentlemen does
with very great misgivings and he thinks
he's got to be thinking to himself
alcibiades wins the day everyone's
really like aristophanes i'm trying to
teach these people things but they won't
even stay sober even when they're sober
they're half drunk in the soul because
you can't talk reason to these people
much as socrates would like to help them
out of love philosophical love concern
that they should become better and not
worse
he does his best to
remind them of their obligations to
themselves and other people
of their capacity for perfection and
it's all undone
by the pernicious influence of
alcibiades
aristophanes
and the athenian people
and the only possible man who man who
could possibly save them as socrates by
introducing them to philosophy and they
won't listen to him so the revelers the
people are drinking on the night before
their death because the man that they're
lionizing and that they think so highly
of is in fact the man that's going to
lead them to doom and destruction
there's a horrible irony in that that is
not comic that is terribly terribly
serious
the last scene as it dissolves into a
kind of haze an alcoholic inebriated
haze
is
socrates alcibiades and agathon
having a discussion about the nature of
art and literature
on one side is alcibiades is agathon the
tragic poet on the other side is
aristophanes the comic poet and in
between his socrates and at the end of
socrates is proving to them that the
tragic poet is really the man that can
write comedy and the comic poet is
really the man that can write tragedy
the implicit message of that closing
scene is that the tragic poet and the
comic poet have very similar kinds of
souls they're all essentially bronze men
and the fact that they are verbally
gifted makes them that much more
dangerous to themselves and to others
the two interlocutors that socrates is
talking to have had so much to drink
they they pass out fall head first on
the table socrates throws a cloak over
them so they don't get cold he gets up
and then goes back home and goes about
his business for the rest of the day
it ends on a note of
almost tragedy
and
it's in that respect
a sort of universal literary achievement
it has elements of tragedy elements of
comedy
elements of high art as well as well low
jokes
in addition to that
it brings into a profound relief the
most important of the platonic teachings
about the importance of organizing one's
soul
about the significance of having
a political order in which philosophy is
respected and cultivated
and about the importance of love about
the importance of pure
excellent emotion
as opposed to the undisciplined lusty
emotions that are characteristic of
bronze men
the symposium isn't really over right
it's a dinner party that's still going
on and there's still a
a seed at it for you
because all of you are going to have to
think about the themes
that were introduced here about how love
fits into your life
about what sort of love is profitable
and unprofitable and how your emotions
relate to your morality and how morality
and emotion form the good song
浏览更多相关视频
Understanding the Self: The Philosophical Self according to Socrates and Plato
Plato's Euthyphro - Which comes first: God or Morality?
Aula 3 (parte 2) ética prática
Plato's Euthyphro A Summary
"Pyaar Aur Ishq Mein Fark Kya Hai?" - Priya Malik ft Abhin | Valentine's Day (UnErase Poetry)
The Ideas of Socrates
5.0 / 5 (0 votes)