Pizhuhish nāmah-i intiqādī-i mutūn va barnāmah hā-yi ̒ulūm-i insāni (Critical Studies in Texts & Programs of Human Sciences)

‘Symposium’ as Plato’s Conception of Dialogue as Form of Wisdom

Document Type : Research

Author

Samira Rezaee

Master of Philosophy, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

https://doi.org/10.30465/crtls.2025.49848.2863
Abstract
While Plato chooses dialogue as the form of his philosophical works, and due to this, his works are distinct in the history of philosophy, ‘The Symposium’ is a different one in Plato’s works. This dialogue presents seven interrelated speeches on the nature of love, with each speaker contributing to the discussion and passing the topic to the next. Consequently, as the preceding and subsequent contributions constitute every utterance in the ‘The Symposium’, each utterance emerges as inherently incomplete, which invites a continuous investigation of the subject throughout the dialogue. Our primary claim in this article is twofold: first, that ‘The Symposium’ should not be considered merely as one of Plato’s dialogues but as a pattern of dialogue itself, and second, that this recognition prompts us to reconsider dialogue not only as Plato’s chosen literary form but also as a pattern of his philosophical thinking.

Keywords

Dialogue
Subject
Whatness
Limit
Completeness
Incompleteness

Subjects

Aristotle (2023), Organon, trans. M. S. Adib Soltani, Tehran: Negah. (In Persian)
Gadamer, H. G. (1980), Dialogue and Dialectic, trans. P. Smith, New Haven: Yale University Press.
Isfahani, G. (2020), Literature in Plato's Thought, Tehran: Fatemi. (In Persian)
Jaeger, W. (2014), Paideia, trans. M. H. Lotfi, Tehran: Kharazmi. (In Persian)
Plato (2006), Collected Works, trans. M. H. Lotfi, Tehran: Kharazmi. (In Persian)
Plato (1986), Plato Symposium, trans. S. Benardete, Chicago: Uninversity of Chicago Press.
Plato (1997), Plato Complete Works, J. M. Cooper (ed.), Cambridge: Hacket Company.
Schleiermacher, F. (2007), Introduction to the Dialogues of Plato, trans. W. Dobson, London: Scholar’s Choice.
Sophocles (2018), The Theban Plays, trans. Sh. Meskoob, Tehran: Kharazmi. (In Persian)
Strauss, L. (2017), Symposium with Leo Strauss, trans. I. Azarafza, Tehran: Elmi-Farhangi. (In Persian)
 
Pizhuhish nāmah-i intiqādī-i mutūn va barnāmah hā-yi ̒ulūm-i insāni (Critical Studies in Texts & Programs of Human Sciences)
Volume 24, Issue 4 - Serial Number 118
Winter 2025
Winter 2025
Pages 217-239

  • Receive Date 29 August 2024
  • Revise Date 14 December 2024
  • Accept Date 21 January 2025

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