All Formats & Editions

A fascinating discussion on sex, gender, and human instincts, as relevant today as ever

In his celebrated masterpiece, Symposium, Plato imagines a high-society dinner-party in Athens in 416 BC. The guests--including the comic poet Aristophanes and Plato's mentor Socrates--each deliver a short speech in praise of love. The sequence of dazzling speeches culminates... Read Full Overview

La narracin se inicia con Apolodoro, que en una conversacin con un amigo rememora una historia que el amigo supone reciente. Apolodoro le comenta que dichos dilogos en los que particip Scrates ocurrieron en otro momento histrico, cuando ellos eran nios.Se inicia el susodicho... Read Full Overview

Plato, Allan Bloom wrote, is "the most erotic of philosophers," and his Symposium is one of the greatest works on the nature of love ever written. This new edition brings together the English translation of the renowned Plato scholar and translator, Seth Benardete, with two illuminating... Read Full Overview

In this text Plato uses a dinner party as a scene for a series of speeches by the guests. From these there emerges a complete and complex philosophy of love. The pivot of the argument is Socrates' speech in which sensuality is transcended and we move from the sensible world to... Read Full Overview

El banquete

Es uno de los pilares sobre los que se asienta toda la filosof?a de Occidente, gira en torno a Eros, el Amor. Y aqu?, como en el resto de su obra, el influyente pensador revela tambi?n una gran fuerza literaria --y, en particular, dram?tica-- a la hora de sumergirnos en el contexto... Read Full Overview

Symposium by Plato - is a beautiful philosophical work about the purpose and nature of Love. Plato is considered by many to be one of the worlds most influential philosophers of all-time. His writings are deeply moving and thought provoking. This is a real masterpiece and one... Read Full Overview

The perfect books for the true book lover, Penguin's Great Ideas series features twelve more groundbreaking works by some of history's most prodigious thinkers. Each volume is beautifully packaged with a unique type-driven design that highlights the bookmaker's art. Offering... Read Full Overview

Plato's Symposium is the most literary of all his works and one which all students of classics are likely to want to read whether or not they are studying Plato's philosophy. But the reader does need help in appreciating both the artistry and the arguments, and in comprehending... Read Full Overview

Plato's Symposium, written in the early part of the 4th century BC, is set at a drinking party (symposium) attended by some of the leading intellectuals of the day, including Aristophanes, the comic dramatist, Socrates, Plato's mentor, and Alcibiades, the brilliant but (eventually)... Read Full Overview