Plato's Symposium: A Translation by Seth Benardete with Commentaries by Allan Bloom and Seth Benardete | 
pickIs Symposium probably one of the best philosophical accounts of hangover chitchat in existence? 🙂 Plato's dialectical dialogue style of philosophical inquiry is very welcoming for people wading into philosophy, & I was blown away by how Socrates approaches the topic of Eros & beauty. Plato employs the fictional modes of a story within a story, so Socrates is made to share his views by relating his conversation with a seer/priestess, Diotima.
batsy She says: "All men are pregnant Socrates, both in body & in soul; & when they are of a right age, our nature desires to beget. But it cannot beget in an ugly thing, only in a beautiful thing. And this business is divine, & this is something immortal in a mortal creature, breeding, & birth". There is much to unpack in these ideas but there is something profoundly moving about attributing the desire to conceive something beautiful to every human. 2y
batsy All of this happens while the men are gathered together for a night of food & drink, & towards the end Alcibiades' crashes the party & goes on a tirade about his jealous longing for Socrates, while also praising his character. It is a short dialogue, rich in ideas, & also feels like very sophisticated Socrates fanfic. Deeply enjoyable. 2y
andrew61 That is a great review. I have never stuck my toe into philosophy or the Greek myths but your review has intrigued me. Where would a novice start ? 2y
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Graywacke I‘m so scared of philosophical stuff, i have sort of avoided this. But you make it sound delightful. In The Man Without Qualities, one of the main protagonists, the beautiful and chaste wife of an Austrian official, is nicknamed and always referred to as Diotima. 2y
Tamra @Graywacke I was too until it was required and I found it really is accessible and meaningful. Reading it recreationally would remove all the pressure and you can take your time. 2y
Tamra Lovely review! I always worried if I didn‘t “get” everything from these types of texts it wasn‘t worth reading. Not true - now I realize. They are meant to be reread multiple times. 😁 2y
batsy @andrew61 Thank you! I'm a philosophy novice as well, especially with classical stuff. This is my first full-length one & it seems like a good place to start? It feels quite "literary", like a story, & is pretty short. I'm doing the Greek plays chronologically as a year-long readalong based on this http://wutheringexpectations.blogspot.com/2022/09/the-cyclops-by-euripides-only-... & it's been really enjoyable ? 2y
batsy @Graywacke That's super interesting! And it makes sense wrt the "chaste" bit; I was super curious about Diotima & her origins are murky but she's meant to be a seer or a priestess who helped Athens avoid a plague, & thus her essential argument about Eros/love (attributed to Socrates) is that to be at the highest level it has to transcend the physical. 2y
batsy @Tamra Thank you! Yes, excellent point. I used to waste a lot of time thinking about whether or not I "get it" with philosophical or more theoretical texts but now I'm like, I'll just roll with it ? The point is to reread and revisit the arguments, for sure. 2y
