Plato’s “Symposium” 212a: be there a person or situation?

Annotation

The paper deals with one of the key passages of Plato’s Symposium describing the contemplation of the ‘beautiful itself’: it is only there when a person contemplates this beautiful with that by which it has to be be contemplated that he may give birth to true virtue, not to a ghost of virtue (Symp. 212a). We compare a number of translations of this passage into various European languages and indicate that a contamination of the adverb μοναχοῦ (‘only’) with the adjective μοναχός (‘the only one, sole’) may accidentally supply a specification of Plato’s philosophical intent (as in the case of Ioannes Serranus). Based on the analysis of the translations of this passage, we look into the meaning of the metaphors of ‘vacuous contemplation’ connected with the topic of noetic grasping, and of ‘conceiving and birthing’ linked to the knowledge of oneself.

Keywords

Plato, the Symposium, the beautiful itself, noesis, translation, interpretation.

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