Symposium - Hardcover

Plato

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1329890027 ISBN 13: 9781329890022

Publisher: Lulu.com, 2016

Synopsis

Do You Really Know Anything About Love? Unless you've studied the classics, you don't know what you've been missing. These days there is a great deal of talk about diversity and equality, in both gender and preferences. A discussion held well over a thousand years ago can teach us more than we might suspect. In this work, Love is examined in a sequence of speeches by men attending a symposium, or drinking party. Basically, party-goers celebrating Agathon's first victory in a drama contest decide to do something besides drink themselves into a stupor because they are still paying for such activity the night before. Socrates joins the group on this second night, and it is decided that each man in turn will offer his praises to love. For a reader (and especially a writer) of Romance works, this might just explain some of the questions that our modern novels raise. Or, it's just a chance to get another feel-good read in during an afternoon. Scroll up and get your copy now.

About this title

About the Author:

Plato, (428-348BC) was a philosopher in Classical Greece and the founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. He is widely considered the most pivotal figure in the development of philosophy, especially the Western tradition. Unlike nearly all of his philosophical contemporaries, Plato's entire œuvre is believed to have survived intact for over 2,400 years.

Along with his teacher, Socrates, and his most famous student, Aristotle, Plato laid the very foundations of Western philosophy and science. The philosopher came from one of the wealthiest and most politically active families in Athens. Ancient sources describe him as a bright though modest boy who excelled in his studies.

His father contributed all which was necessary to give to his son a good education, and, therefore, Plato must have been instructed in grammar, music, gymnastics and philosophy by some of the most distinguished teachers of his era. Apuleius informs us that Speusippus praised Plato's quickness of mind and modesty as a boy, and the "first fruits of his youth infused with hard work and love of study."

The precise relationship between Plato and Socrates remains an area of contention among scholars. Plato makes it clear in his Apology of Socrates, that he was a devoted young follower of Socrates. In that dialogue, Socrates is presented as mentioning Plato by name as one of those youths close enough to him to have been corrupted, if he were in fact guilty of corrupting the youth, and questioning why their fathers and brothers did not step forward to testify against him if he was indeed guilty of such a crime (33d-34a). Although their popularity has fluctuated over the years, the works of Plato have never been without readers since the time they were written.

About this edition

• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1329890027
• ISBN 13: 9781329890022
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 96