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Philosophy Is So Gay

Saint Augustine
@SaintAugustine
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The Symposium of Plato is an amazing mix of tragedy, comedy, and serious philosophy. It's a literary and philosophical accomplishment with few rivals and fewer superiors. (Three to which I'd consider awarding that distinction: Plato's Republic, Augustine's Confessions, and Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy.)

The setting is a drinking party at Agathon's place. Eryximachus recommends everybody not drink too much like they had the night before. So they try to moderate their alcohol consumption by selection as the real object of their evening . . . speeches. Speeches in praise of Love! Things get weird and awesome and hilarious from there.

It's not that everyone is gay. It's just that the flute girls are sent away; Pausanias praises Athenian homosexuality as the heavenly form of love; Pausanias is super-gay and wants to date Agathon; Aristophanes thinks that's hilarious... and probably several other people in the room are or have been involved in homosexual relationships.

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"Symposium" by Anselm Feuerbach. Wikimedia Commons

The Symposium might actually be a criticism of homosexuality. At least it's safe to say that it's a criticism of ancient Athenian homosexuality--which helped to really, really mess up Alcibiades.

Oh, about that—did I mention that Alcibiades shows up late ridiculously drunk and explains how he totally failed to get lucky with Socrates?

I am not making any of this up!

And then there's the philosophy! When Socrates gives his speech, it starts off with him explaining that he picked up all his love expertise from a woman—Diotima.

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With a set-up like that, you might expect some salacious story about Socrates's affair with some hot little item named Diotima, but it's nothing of the sort. Diotima is an older and wiser woman, and I bet you can't read the Symposium without picturing her as ugly.

She's kind of like an ornery grandmother--like Madea, but wiser. The highlight of the Symposium is how Diotima told Socrates about how to ascend in love towards Beauty Itself, the ultimate non-physical reality. But all that awesomeness happens before the hilarity and tragedy of Alcibiades.

Besides the philosophy in the Diotima speech, the Symposium has some real, and simple enough, insights. Like how ancient Athenian homosexuality customs seriously corrupt the education/mentorship of younger men by older men. And how love isn't the point itself; the point of love is that what love loves is the real point.

A question for my fellow Christians--if G-d is love, how does that work? Maybe we'll talk about that later.

Anyway, a current TeacherOfPhilosophy series on YouTube/Rumble is going over the Symposium. Here’s where you can subscribe to me on Rumble, and here’s the Rumble channel with the Symposium series. On YouTube, the Symposium series is in the Great Texts playlist. Expect a total of 14 videos airing weekly. The first three are below.

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Discussion (19)

  • Matt Balzer, Imperialist Claw@MattBalzer
    Saint Augustine (View Post):
    Eryximachus recommends everybody not drink too much like they did last night. So they try to moderate their alcohol consumption by selection as the real object of their evening . . . speeches.

    If they actually want to moderate their alcohol consumption that's a terrible idea because everyone else is going to be drinking while one person is speechifying. Of course if they want to debate that's also a bad idea because nothing keeps a debate going like a pull from your wine jug. Or the communal wine jug, I don't know how the Greeks did it.

    Saint Augustine (View Post):

    Oh, about that–did I mention that Alcibiades shows up late ridiculously drunk and explains how he totally failed to get lucky with Socrates?

    I am not making any of this up!

    I have maybe two facts about Alcibiades in my knowledge base, and both of them point towards that statement being absolutely true.

    Saint Augustine (View Post):

    And then there’s the philosophy! When Socrates gives his speech, it starts off with him explaining that he picked up all his love expertise from a woman–Diotima.

    With a set-up like that, you might expect some salacious story about Socrates’s affair with some hot little item named Diotima, but it’s nothing of the sort. Diotima is an older and wiser woman, and I bet you can’t read the Symposium without picturing her as ugly.

    She might not be a supermodel but I'd guess she was a long way from an uggo. There's a lot to be said for picking up your love expertise from an older and wiser woman.

  • Saint Augustine@SaintAugustine
    Saint Augustine (View Post):
    The setting is a drinking party at Agathon’s place. Eryximachus recommends everybody not drink too much like they had the night before. So they try to moderate their alcohol consumption by selection as the real object of their evening . . . speeches. Speeches in praise of Love! Things get weird and awesome and hilarious from there.

    Oh, that typo! Ouch.

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