Why is Alcibiades late? Paiderastia in Plato's Symposium

Plato's Symposium is perhaps the central text not just for Plato's views of love (erōs), but for the whole Western tradition of thought about love and desire. This talk will consider what we can learn about the role of erōs in education (paideia) from three speeches in the Symposium: Pausanias and Socrates' eulogies of Erōs and Alcibiades' eulogy of Socrates. We will wonder in particular why Plato has Alcibiades come late (and drunk) to Agathon's drinking party and then talk (in very frank detail) about his experience of Socratic education, without being aware of the theory underpinning this practice, which Socrates has just presented through the mouth of a mysterious priestess called Diotima. What do Alcibiades' misunderstandings tell us about the challenges that Plato’s philosophical model of education is likely to meet in any traditional educational system?

‪@platosphere‬