ABSTRACT
The Symposium takes the form of a fictional dialogue between Athens's famous talkers, thinkers, and writers as they discuss matters of love and virtue. The fundamental question that The Symposium addresses is the role of erotic desire in the philosophical pursuit of wisdom, virtue, and happiness. Specifically, it considers whether Eros is beneficial to the production of philosophy and to the living of an ethical life. The Symposium is of crucial academic and cultural importance as a part of Plato's wider body of work, given the general influence of his ideas on the intellectual life of the West, and on philosophy in particular. The Symposium tells the authors that academic study is not simply a question of discovering answers or learning facts. It is about developing ways of thinking and communicating that are valuable in themselves—what Plato would have regarded as intellectual virtues.
