Plato’s Lysis
A dialogue on the nature of friendship
Each series of the Practical Wisdom podcast I produce presents a deep dive into a single text from the Greco-Roman wisdom tradition. From time to time, as in the case of this post, it may helpful to pause and collect together all the entries referring to the same piece of classical writing, so that those interested can go back to them at their leisure, listen to the episodes in sequence, and gain a broader appreciation of what they are about.
Today I submit to you a collection of links to my commentaries on Plato’s Lysis, a dialogue, allegedly, about the nature of friendship. I say “allegedly” because the term actually being investigated by Socrates & co. is that of philia, which in Ancient Greek had a much broader meaning than just friendship. So much so that, for instance, one could say that medicine is a “friend” of the body because it cures sickness.
The dialogue’s major characters are Socrates (of course) and two young boys, Lysis (the title character) and Menexenus. There is also Hippothales, who is in love with Lysis, though he is not reciprocated. But Hippothales hides behind other listeners and doesn’t really participate to the conversation.
Socrates explores four different hypotheses as to the meaning of friendship: that it is possible only between good men; that it is possible only between men who are dissimilar; that it is possible exclusively between men who are neither good nor bad and good men; or that it can be achieved only between those who are “relatives” (that is, akin) because of the nature of their souls. Socrates seems to think that the third option is the most likely one, but the dialogue ends in aporia, that is, without a final resolution.
The translation I used is by Donald Watt, part of the Penguin Classics collection Early Socratic Dialogues, 2005. Here are the links to the pertinent episodes: