3-Week SASA Reading Group: Entrances and Exits: Erotic Ascent and Descent in Plato’s Symposium

This 3-week reading group will be devoted to a close study of Plato’s Symposium, a dialogue where Socrates and his friends throw a drinking party and give speeches in praise of Eros, the god of desire. We will discuss the dialogue’s theme of erotic love, its highly complex narrative structure, its conspicuous use of dramatic (primarily comic) elements, and the ascent of the Socratic lover through the ladder of Eros. What is the relationship between desire, beauty, and philosophy in Platonic thought? How can desire lead us towards the Good and inspire us towards ethical actions? How is desire—primarily sexual desire—entangled in history, politics, and social hierarchies? What role do rituals and rites of passage play in the articulation and management of desire? After discussing all the speeches in the dialogue (including the one by Socrates/Diotima), we will conclude by investigating the philosophical significance of the sudden intrusion by Alcibiades—drunk…