Lysis

By Plato

Book Overview

Lysis is a philosophy classic and a dialogue by Plato. The dialogue consists of two scenes or conversations which seem to have no relation to each other: What is Love? and What is Friendship? he main characters are Socrates, the boys Lysis and Menexenus who are friends, as well as Hippothales, who is in unrequited love with Lysis and therefore, after the initial conversation, hides himself behind the surrounding listeners. Socrates proposes four possible notions regarding the true nature of friendship: Friendship between people who are similar, interpreted by Socrates as friendship between good men. Friendship between men who are dissimilar. Friendship between men who are neither good nor bad and good men. Gradually emerging: friendship between those who are relatives "not kindred" by the nature of their souls. Of all those options, Socrates thinks that the only logical possibility is the friendship between men who are good and men who are neither good nor bad. In the end, Socrates seems to discard all these ideas as wrong, although his para-logical refutations have strong hints of irony about them. Hippothales is accused by Ctesippus, that he still presents annoying praises of his beloved person before the others. He is then asked by Socrates to show his usual behavior in this situation. He admits his love for Lysis, but refuses, that he behaves by the manner depicted by the others. According to Ctesippus it is possible only by his absolute madness, because how would the others know about the love otherwise?

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1518703062
• ISBN13: 9781518703065
• Release Date: October 2015
• Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 76 Pages
• Weight: 0.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

good translation, dubious interpretation

This is a good translation, perhaps the best available of the Lysis but beware of Bolotin's footnotes and interpretation. Bolotin is a card carrying Straussian, which is fine as far as that goes but that tends to lead to his reading into things that aren't there. For instance, a parable about friends being like and assumes its not only from Homer but a reverse of what Homer says--so in essence a misquote. Yet in ancient Greece parables about friends and likeness are very common and if one tracks down the passage in Homer it simply doesn't make sense. I like this translation, it is clear and it is honest about how it translates the very key term philia--but this is the same man that said that Aristotle had something up his sleeve when he wrote the physics and somehow argued that Aristotle is trying to dupe his students/readers. Not a very credible interpretation, but a fine translation.