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Leo Strauss On Plato's Symposium

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This is a remarkable book. It consists of transcriptions of the lectures given by Leo Strauss in his 1959 University of Chicago course on Plato's political philosophy. The course was devoted to the study of Plato's Symposium, but Strauss of course discusses several other dialogues that he suggests are related to the Symposium. The lectures read differently than the books and essays Professor Strauss prepared for publication. They are somewhat more open; they go somewhat more slowly through the material; they are perhaps somewhat less apparently ironic. But this only begins to hint at the special riches of the access this book affords to Professor Strauss's classroom.

Symposium is my favorite dialogue and as such I've read a number of commentaries (Rosen, Allen and Dover). This one is very special. Strauss has a reach, a clarity and an elegance that is stunning. Let me give you an example. Strauss claims that Aristophanes' The Frogs was the model for the Symposium. Never thought of that before, but when you think about it, it's obvious. Yes, a very powerful idea. This level is sustained throughout the book. You may not agree with everything Strauss says, but even where you disagree you will find him profitable.

This is a different sort of Leo Strauss book. It's not a lecture given by him, and then edited for publication; rather, it is a transcription of a graduate class at U of Chicago in 1959. Yet despite this distance from Strauss' own hand- it reads as a rich and telling tale about philosophy and the possibilty of it. Strauss mentions early on that even the most average novelist, compared to the contemporary social scientist, produces a better insight to the human condition. Yet Strauss exceeds each craft in the course of this lecture. The amazing richness, touches of braod insight on a variety of topics, historical imagination and speculation, political comment and human awareness which leaks across the page are so satisfying and interesting, the book immediately stands out as significant, enjoyable, important, and worth re-reading as any classic piece of literature. Suspend all preconceptions and just float into this work; take it a page at a time- stop and wonder on the words- a careful reader will have to, for the surprising, unique, complex, complicated and shocking punctuate the work. An example is on page 94, when Strauss comments that Marx realized the bisexual nature of man had to be overcome if true communism would ever come to pass. Bisexual nature of man? What does this mean- how does it relate to Marx? The penetration and insight of Strauss on the material is so deft, it sparks insight to many other Platonic works, contemporary politics and the history of political philosophy. The uniqueness of Strauss' take on the Symposium is so daring, it will undoubtly lead one to reconsider their conception of Ancient Greek history, Platonic cosmology and the nature of mankind. Truly a priceless book.

This transcription of an excellent graduate seminar on the Symposium shows Strauss as a lively, captivating, and patient teacher. That an entire seminar was spent on a paragraph-by-paragraph explication of a single platonic dialogue indicates the depth and intensity of Strauss's reading.

The value of the book lies in providing an example of what an adequate reading of a platonic dialogue might look like. It shows that reading a platonic dialogue is an incredibly more complex enterprise than reading a philosophical treatise. One must constantly consider the intentions of the characters, what the characters do not say in addition to what they state explicitly, the implications of a character's speech which the character may not be aware of but which Plato sometimes amplifies, the inter-relation between the characters' speeches, the inter-relation between the platonic dialogues, and the many allusions to other ancient greek thinkers and poets (Strauss's knowledge on this last point is very impressive and helpful).

Strauss shows that an intense attention to detail is essential to understand why Plato wrote as he wrote. One must account for why Plato gave Aristophanes a bout of hiccups, for instance, and not dismiss it as meaningless artistic flourish superimposed on the "real content." To only look for the "explicit" philosophical doctrines, the bit of treatise buried in the drama, is to miss the incredibly rich action, implications, and implicit arguments of the dialogue, which begin to come to life once Strauss provides you a foothold from which to begin interpreting them. And to neglect all the other speeches and focus only on Diotima's, as I was too inclined to do before reading Stauss's book, is to miss the import of the dramatic dialogue form, and is really to bypass Plato.

A very stimulating and entertaining introduction to the serious reading of Plato, which captivates the reader by providing an extended example of just such a reading by a brilliant scholar and thinker. Highly recommended.

(p.s., as to the other reviewer's statement about Strauss' Marx and bisexuality comment, I read Strauss to be referring to the biological division of labor between the sexes (i.e., women give birth, men don't), rather than sexual preference. Strauss notes as an aside that in this respect, marxian dialectic was unable to overcome nature.)

I cannot quite align myself with those reviews that reach for 'clarity' as a summary of these lectures. They are sprawling, deep and fruited. Strauss' lectures flee in almost too many directions, and I wondered often whether he wasn't looking too closely. Indeed, these lectures often felt like the writing of someone who had stared at the Symposium until his eyes crossed. Insightful, of course, but are so many spots where I find Strauss wringing too much from the work. He may place too much faith in Plato's skill, or simple value drawing every dreg from a piece of literature. I enjoyed the lectures, but I do not believe they directly reflect 'Plato's' Symposium. There are strokes of 'modern' flair.

...this is a transcription of a series of class lectures. The introduction is not too helpful; very brief leaving more questions than answers, really. The history of the project along with technical aspects are not really discussed much. Also, expect some gaps as the tape is changed. It seems odd that only one recorder was used, but maybe no one intended the lectures to ever be published. On the other hand, the end product hold up very well, and one can imagine what it was like to attend Strauss lectures.