Phaedrus goes first. The discussion of the myth presented in Aristophanes’ speech is compatible with Socrates’ visions of the issue of love because both philosophers consider love as a desire of something or a lack of an important part for people to be complete, love is also the search of the best part or the “goodness”, and the philosophers agree that love is intentional in its nature. Socrates expresses great admiration at the beauty and careful phrasing of Agathon's speech, noting a debt of influence to the great orator, Gorgias. Strong critics of Agathon however have referred to his writing as being simply imitation. The peak of the dialogue is Socrates speech which re-tells his learning about love from a woman named Diotima. On pp. SOCRATES FINAL SPEECH CHOOSING DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR WORLD FUTURE FUND INTRODUCTION TO SPEECH In 399 B.C, the Athenian government sentenced to death its … The work itself, in its totality, sets up a configuration of perspectives – all of It is telling that in the early hours of the night, Socrates speaks to Agathon and Aristophanes about the importance of mastering both comedy and tragedy in writing, as they are the people most fit to hear this, and those who switched roles for the night. As such, each deserves a separate discussion: see "Main Ideas" for an exploration of the two concepts and their relation to the Symposium overall. Symposium and The Death of Socrates im Zustand Gebraucht kaufen. All the speakers do not agree on the definition and features of love. Very many unseemly dinner parties must have paved the way for that regulation. Sorcerer Love: A Reading of Plato's Symposium, Diotima's Speech. In his restless, ambitious, seeking quality, Diotima adds, Love has more in common with the unsatisfied lover than with the beautiful beloved. (PDF) Plato Handout: Socrates' (and Diotima's) Speech in the Symposium | Gregory Sadler - Academia.edu Handout supplied to my students as we work through Plato's Symposium, focused particularly on the content in the sixth speech, given by Socrates … Apollodorus relates to an unnamed companion a story he learned from Aristodemus about a symposium, or dinner-party, given in honor of the tragedian Agathon. The speeches are to be given in praise of Eros, the god of love and desire. In what specific ways does Socrates take apart Agathon's logic? Every so often one can find instances where Socrates and other players in these conversations seem to contradict themselves, or at least muddle their arguments. Socrates now begins to question the truth of Agathon’s speech. Socrates now begins to question the truth of Agathon’s speech. What is left underneath the skillful prose disguised as parody might be a complete lack of knowledge. ISBN-10: 1853264792 This is the view taken by most modern scholars, but it raises additional questions: for starters, as David Halperin puts it in a noteworthy 1990 essay, "Why did Plato select a woman to initiate Socrates into the mysteries of a male, homoerotic desire?" Love, says Socrates at the symposium – is an ardent desire for something. Das Symposion (altgriechisch Συμπόσιον Sympósion „Gastmahl“ oder „Trinkgelage“, latinisiert Symposium) ist ein in Dialogform verfasstes Werk des griechischen Philosophen Platon.Darin berichtet ein Erzähler vom Verlauf eines Gastmahls, das schon mehr als ein Jahrzehnt zurückliegt. Alcibiades´s speech is an important part of the Symposium, because it serves as a companion to Socrates´s speech that precedes it, which is the Ladder of Love. Love has the four cardinal virtues of Justice, Moderation, Bravery, and Wisdom. This is not the occasion to argue such a claim systematically with regard to all the early speeches, but I shall later take the opportunity to support it with examples. It depicts a friendly contest of extemporaneous speeches given by a group of notable men attending a banquet. A person who is tall would not desire height, as they will be tall for their whole life, but someone who is strong could desire strength, since it is not necessary that they will be strong in the future. The speeches of Socrates, Alcibiades, and Aristophanes are of main focus, as their similarities and differences help the reader to decide the truth of the nature of love. Berdiaev has a dramatic sense of the higher and lower in man. follower of Socrates from Phalerum; he was only 13 when the banquet took place. However, Socrates’ speech will differ insofar as it will involve more than mere praise (GREEK) of Eros, rather, it will attempt to give a true account of Eros (GREEK)(198e — 199a). Socrates’ critique of his peers (considered above) was an explicit statement to the effect that the previous speeches did not aim for truth (Symposium 198d7–e6). The philosopher, Socrates gave his speech last, claiming that his speech was merely a repetition of what a wise woman named Diotima once told him. He portrays her as having initiated him into the higher mysteries of Eros through a dialectical discussion. Retrieved December 5, 2020, from https://www.coursehero.com/lit/Symposium/. Plato’s Symposium is one of the most iconic works of literature in the Western tradition. When asking “a brother, just insofar as he is a brother, is he the brother of something or not?” Socrates is asking what a brother is, asking the question what is that which a Form answers. Having power over pleasure, therefore, Love has the greatest moderation. (2017, September 20). Have study documents to share about Symposium? A comedic speech, it illustrated Diotima’s speech, importantly likening Socrates to Eros. How does Plato, using integrative thinking, ultimately find a way to connect erotic love, beauty and the absolute into a unified whole? The Ladder of Love is a highly complex, abstract treatise about beauty, which bring up the idea that love is about pursuing philosophy and the beautiful things, not sexual intercourse. Course Hero, "Symposium Study Guide," September 20, 2017, accessed December 5, 2020, https://www.coursehero.com/lit/Symposium/. To prove Love’s wisdom, Agathon equates Love’s poetry, making those in love poets, the production of animals, and his effect on artisans and professionals as being wise. The true erastes starts by loving the physical beauty of an individual and then, by a series of steps which include the love of beauty in souls, Passage 197D, the concluding passage of the speech, is the most prominent example of this. A preliminary overview of Socrates’s speech in the Symposiumconfirms many of the suggestions that we have made in the introduction and the previous two chapters. For a defense of the view that Socrates’ speech in Xenophon’s Symposium 8 was composed in imitation of Plato’s Symposium, see Thesleff 1978 and Bowen 1998:8–9. Its legacy has been far reaching, inspiring religion and mysticism, to visions of art, the good, and the beautiful. In his speech at the symposium, Socrates resorts to his favorite dialectical method of maieutics. Thus, there are some similarities and differences between the speech of Agathon and the one of Socrates that I will try to put in evidence in this essay. Agathon talks about what love is, rather than what it does. Aristodemus: “a little fellow, who never wore any shoes” is the man who told the tale to Apollodorus and whom Apollodorus is quoting; he was at the symposium, but did not deliver a speech (encomium). He pokes fun at Socrates who is older and was never described at attractive, when saying “Everyone knows that Love has extraordinary good looks, and between ugliness and Love there is unceasing war” (196 A), clearly a jab at the man sitting next to him. Copyright © 2016. Summarize Phaedrus’s, Pausanias’, Eryximachus, Aristophanes’, and Agathon’s view on the nature of love in Plato’s Symposium. Download a PDF to print or study offline. "Symposium Study Guide." Web. He has “the biggest share of moderation.” Moderation is power over pleasures and passions, and since no pleasure is stronger than Love, weaker pleasures are under Love’s power. Jimenez, Karla. He asks if Love is the love of nothing or something, to which Agathon answers the latter, and then Socrates says that Love desires that which loves it. On the Symposium . Is there any evidence in Socrates of the type of love Nygren calls agape? Many of the main characters take the opportunity to depart and return home; Socrates, however, stays awake until dawn. Notably, Love, as described by Diotima, is not a uniform mixture of "poor" and "rich" qualities, but is constantly vacillating between the two. Course Hero. ... Socrates the Lover in Plato's Symposium - Philosophy Core Concepts - Duration: 15:02. “Our prayers should be for blessings in general, for God knows best what is good for us.” – Socrates. Gods and men interact through spirits, … Before Agathon can respond to this final question, Phaedrus interrupts and beckons Agathon to give his speech praising eros. Glaucon After all present applaud for Agathon, Socrates tells Eryximachus, reminding him he had said he would have nothing to say after Agathon spoke. Aristophanes was considered to be the most accomplished writer of comedies in the ancient world. Berdiaev’s position bears a remote similarity to Pausianias’ speech in the Symposium (Rouse pp. Speeches of Socrates. Symposium is a series of speeches on Love, made by the guests, Socrates, Phaedrus, Pausanias, Eryximachus, Aristophanes and Alcibiades and their host, the young Agathon. Unlike those two versions of Love's pedigree, which can be sourced to Homer and Hesiod respectively, Diotima's allegory appears to be an essentially original invention, with only a few echoes of earlier myths. One such occurrence of this is in Plato's Symposium and Plato's Phaedrus. Personal relationships are a common theme in the two most substantial sections (the guests’ quirky accounts of their own most prized assets and Socrates’ speech on physical and spiritual love)… Read More The guests decide not to get drunk, but drinking a little and discuss about love. Sample paper on by Cheng –Ju Danny Lu: Cheng –Ju Danny Lu. Agathon wrongly defines them when applying them to Love. Therefore, Love desires beautiful things, and since he only loves what he does not have, Love needs beauty and does not have it. While The Republic may be more famous, Symposium is the most graphic, intense, and dramatic of the dialogues. The Symposium is a philosophical text by Plato dated c. 385–370 BC. An jenem denkwürdigen Tag hielten die Teilnehmer der Reihe nach Reden über die Erotik. Before he begins his speech, however, Socrates lures Agathon into one of the dialogues for which he is famous, asking him one question after another about the nature of love. Symposium e-text contains the full text of Symposium by Plato. A shift in focus occurs in his speech again, from Aristophanes’ human conception of Love, to Agathon’s purely divine conception of goodness and focus in praising Love, the god. Instead, Socrates claims that the typical definition of love does not exist and instead praises wisdom. Symposium Study Guide. Not affiliated with Harvard College. 44. Socrates questions Agathon's speech, suggesting that Agathon has spoken about the object of Love, rather than Love itself. Ultimately, Halperin concludes, "to ask why Diotima is a woman is to pose a question that ... has no answer.". He asks if Love is the love of nothing or something, to which Agathon answers the latter, and then Socrates says that Love desires that which loves it. The use of lyric meters, internal rhymes, balanced phrases, among other poetic devices parody the teachings of Gorgias on formal speaking. Socrates then engages with Agathon who believes Socrates is trying to playfully threaten him because his sensibility is greater than many fools, and Socrates compels him to agree that he would show shame before the wise, but perhaps not before the many. The questioning sets up Diotima’s speech, introducing the idea that love must be a lover of wisdom, to be nuanced by Diotima. The Symposium is a tragedy for an analogous reason: it contains an imitation of one part of such a life, namely, what the Protagoras terms a “symposium of beautiful and good men” who “test each other’s mettle in mutual argument” by asking and answering questions (347d3–348a9). 4. The true erastes starts by loving the physical beauty of an individual and then, by a series of steps which include the love of beauty in souls, laws and sciences, reaches absolute beauty itself. All agree and he begins his speech by asking Agathon questions. Symposium It is well known that Plato, a devoted student of Socrates, chronicled many of Socrates' speeches and conversations. Socrates' speech in the Symposium ends with a description of the scala amoris, the ascent towards the highest form of love. Socrates asks what he is then, to which she responds he is in between mortal and immortal; a spirit. Unlike Agathon, only some attendees praise Socrates’s speech, but before Aristophanes can respond to the claims levied against him, a loud hammering is heard from the … Plato constantly challenges the tragedy-comedy dichotomy in the Symposium, and Agathon’s speech is a major element in this challenge. 3. Plato’s Symposium explores the nature of love through several different telling’s of what love is by philosophers of the time. To avoid comparisons to the previous speeches, he asks if he can speak in his own way. Then he turns to Phaedrus, telling him this is the speech he has prepared, admitting part of it was in fun, but part of it was still moderately serious. The Symposium (Greek: Συμπόσιον) is a Socratic dialogue written by Xenophon in the late 360's B.C. De amore: Sócrates y Alcibíades en el Banquete de Platón. If this is how the speeches are supposed to go, Socrates warns, his own speech will likely seem rude and unpolished by comparison. This, in turn, will lead the lover to an appreciation of physical beauty of all sorts, at which point obsessing over the beauty of any one person will seem "ridiculous and petty." Like all the Platonic dialogues, the work, which is very literary, consists mainly of speeches. Even Timaeus is an esoteric account of the political. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of Symposium by Plato. Symposium essays are academic essays for citation. He, like Pausanias, is unconcerned with heterosexuality almost completely. Instead, Socrates claims that the typical definition of love does not exist and instead praises wisdom. He praises Agathon’s speech, saying it reminded him of Gorgias. Diotima is a fictitious prophetess whom Socrates invents in his speech at the symposium. 42. GradeSaver, 13 January 2015 Web. Socrates and Critias give political speeches and we fully expect Timaeus to do the same. Agathon’s speech was more clearly comedic. But in some few particulars Socrates indicates his agreement with statements made by Agathon. Socrates adds that good things are beautiful, and if Love needs beautiful things and good things are beautiful, Love needs good things too. 201d-204c Quotes. In his speech at the symposium, Socrates resorts to his favorite dialectical method of maieutics. Suduiko, Aaron ed. This is done in order to prepare the way for his own discourse on Love. * For further discussion: Did any earlier speech reflect the concern expressed by Agathon? The strictly dialectical part of Socrates' speech (199 C—201 C), which takes the form of a cross-questioning of Agathon, consists, in the main, of a hostile critique and refutation of his speech. The heroes of ancient myth, Diotima asserts, were all "in love with immortality.". Love is a messenger between mean and gods. The speeches. Although he claims he is merely relating the advice he received from Diotima, Socrates's speech hearkens back to what many of the previous speakers have said. Socrates' speech in the Symposium ends with a description of the scala amoris, the ascent towards the highest form of love. 5 Dec. 2020. Instead, Socrates claims that the typical definition of love does not exist and instead praises wisdom. Symposium narrates a party where conversation, interspersed with cabaret, shifts continually between frivolity and seriousness. With this in mind, it is Socrates’ speech to the group that becomes most intriguing as attempts to subvert all the previous points on the personality of love, the roles of women and the honorability of sexual love, only to end up reinforcing them after all. Socrates goes on to remind Agathon of having claimed there is only love of beautiful things, not ugly ones. This "something" is beauty itself, pure and abstract, unattached to any person, object, or idea. Love is Brave, having a hold on Ares, the god of war, since Aphrodite has power over Ares. Be clear and complete as to the essentials of each view. Socrates's discourse on love is the centerpiece of the dialogue and, in part, a refutation of Agathon's one-sided speech on the topic. The symposium comes to an end when a large drunken group shows up. 20 Sep. 2017. As such, his benefit to humanity arises not from his own beauty and goodness, but from the way he gets people to seek after those qualities. How so or how not? The other major ideas from Socrates's speech—love as a chasing after immortality, and love as an ascent toward pure beauty—are among the most important and influential in Plato's works. This, for example, adds a layer to the portrayal of Socrates, underneath Agathon’s jabs at him. Accessed December 5, 2020. https://www.coursehero.com/lit/Symposium/. Aristodemus: “a little fellow, who never wore any shoes” is the man who told the tale to Apollodorus and whom Apollodorus is quoting; he was at the symposium, but did not deliver a speech (encomium). Commentary on Plato Symposium. Suddenly, there was a loud noise of knocking at the front door, which sounded like revelers, and they heard the voice of a flute-girl. In brief, Agathon finds himself forced to admit that love is a kind of desire, and something can be desired only if it is missing. I'm familiar with the concept of integrative thinking but unsure on the details of it that would cover such a complex set of variables. While his speech has been considered one of the worst of the group, he does set the reader up for Diotima like the others, as the first speaker to explicitly distinguish between beauty and goodness. In Plato's Symposium, the series of speeches about Love that culminate in Socrates' own seem to me to be contrived by the author to run in a similarly ascending order. 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