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:

Born to a politically connected and aristocratic family between 428 and 423 B.C. , Plato received a good standard of education at an early age, and was able to immerse himself in the intellectual community of Ancient Athens. His most notable contemporary and mentor was Socrates, an eccentric but highly capable philosopher who was to feature as a principle character in most of Plato's scholarly writings. Owing to his high standard of education in art, mathematics, rhetoric and philosophy, Plato was able to assemble a comprehensive philosophy of his own via his favoured form of writing which was the dialogue. In total, over thirty of these Platonic dialogues have survived the passage of time - and together they form the backbone of Ancient Greek philosophy. After enjoying success as a writer and academic, Plato in 385 B.C. founded The Academy. This school was to unite the most capable thinkers of Greece, and would help to advance learning throughout Greek society's Golden Age. It was in the Academy that Plato would instruct and apprentice Aristotle, who was to go on to gain renown as a philosopher and scholar. Owing to his reputation Plato was hired by Dion, whose nephew Dionysus II was the rightful ruler of Sicily - Dion wished his nephew to receive a good education in the art of sound and wise governance. However Dionysus II became suspicious and accused both Plato and Dion of conspiracy - after some time spent under arrest, Plato returned to his homeland. In his late period, Plato continued to tutor and mentor the best young minds of Athens, and he would perish around 348 B.C. having lived beyond the age of eighty. Today Plato's legacy remains lauded: the philosopher ably used logic and reason to imbue insight on democratic governance, while developing a cohesive philosophy on topics such as art, metaphysics, justice and the 'Theory of Forms' - his iconic take on how ideas related to reality.

About this edition

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