Plato - Symposium

In this presentation, Roger Weir explains Plato's Symposium, framing it as one of the great spiritual documents of Western civilization—a dramatic dinner party where Athens' most brilliant eccentrics gather to praise love, only to have each speech stripped away as extraneous until Socrates, channeling the teachings of his mysterious teacher Diotima, reveals love as a spirit that bridges the mortal and divine. He traces Diotima's "ladder of love," which ascends from individual beauty through institutions and learning to the vision of Beauty itself, and unpacks key ideas like the realm of "correct opinion" between ignorance and knowledge, the necessity of the body alongside the soul, and love as humanity's longing for immortality. Along the way, the talk touches on Plato's use of myth versus magical language, the symbolic weight of figures like Aristophanes and Agathon, and how Socrates embodies the living center the entire dialogue points toward—setting up next week's turn to the Republic.This is the seventh presentation in a series about Plato created and presented by Roger Weir.More information about these presentations can be found athttps://sharedpresencefoundation.org/presentations/platohttps://sharedpresencefoundation.org/presentations/platos-theory-of-educationhttps://sharedpresencefoundation.org/presentations/plato-iiMore presentations by Roger Weir are available at the Shared Presence Foundation website and on our YouTube channel