Plato's Symposium

A comprehensive and incisive treatment of this multi-layered dialogue and its main critical issues, focusing on the central theme of erōs.

This book presents new readings of all parts of Plato's Symposium and offers fresh perspectives on topics including beauty, desire, and immortality. Students and scholars in philosophy and classics will benefit from this insightful and critical examination of a complex and influential dialogue of philosophical, historical, and literary interest.Plato's Symposium is an exceptionally multi-layered dialogue. At once a historical document, a philosophical drama that enacts abstract ideas in an often light-hearted way, and a literary masterpiece, it has exerted an influence that goes well beyond the confines of philosophy. The essays in this volume, by leading scholars, offer detailed analyses of all parts of the work, focusing on the central and much-debated theme of erōs or 'human desire' - which can refer both to physical desire or desire for happiness. They reveal thematic continuities between the prologue and the various speeches as well as between the speeches themselves, and present a rich collection of contrasting yet complementary readings of Diotima's speech. The volume will be invaluable for classicists and philosophers alike, and for all who are interested in one of Plato's most fascinating and challenging dialogues.