The Symposium

Author: Plato, Gill, Christopher, Gill, Christopher

Western philosophy: Ancient, to c 500

Published on 27 February 2003 by Penguin Books Ltd (Penguin Classics) in the United Kingdom.

Paperback | 144 pages
196 x 128 x 9 | 112g

'Perhaps the most entertaining work of philosophy ever written ... the first really systematic and serious attempt to say what love is' John Armstrong, GuardianIn the course of a lively drinking party, a group of Athenian intellectuals exchange views on eros, or desire. From their conversation emerges a series of subtle reflections on gender roles, sex in society and the sublimation of basic human instincts. The discussion culminates in a radical challenge to conventional views by Plato's mentor, Socrates, who advocates transcendence through spiritual love. The Symposium is a deft interweaving of different viewpoints and ideas about the nature of love - as a response to beauty, a cosmic force or a path to goodness.

Translated with an Introduction by Christopher Gill