A Eulogy of the Written Dialogue? Education, Beauty, and Progression in Plato’s SYMPOSIUM

This paper contends that Plato’s Symposium makes a powerful contribution to an understanding of the aims, methods and the value of the dialogue form, the latter being conceived as an “art of philosophical writing”. Through analysis of the first three eulogies of Eros reported in the Symposium, I shall argue that Plato aims to establish a dialogue with his readers by inviting them to grasp the theoretical and practical import of the ideals of beauty, education and philo- sophical progression. I will show in what ways many of the qualities attached to Eros may be referred to the philosophical writing itself.