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Hello Plato's symposium, one of the masterpieces of Western philosophy is a dramatic dialogue

set at a dinner party in ancient Athens.

It begins with the guests agreeing that, having drunk too much the previous night, they

better not over-indulge again.

The guests include some of the greatest figures of classical Athens, including the playwright

Aristophanes and the philosopher Socrates.

These eminent individuals have a wide-ranging discussion which focuses on the nature of

love, what it is, where it comes from, and what it means to be in love.

The symposium has had a lasting effect on our thinking about love and physical desire,

influencing writers and philosophers from the early Christian era to the Renaissance

and beyond.

When me to discuss Plato's symposium are Angie Hobbes, Professor of the Public Understanding

of Philosophy at the University of Sheffield, Richard Hunter, Regis Professor of Greek at

the University of Cambridge, and Frisbee Sheffield, Director of Studies in Philosophy at Christ's

College, University of Cambridge.

Angie Hobbes, Plato, Fourth Century BC, one of the founders of Western philosophy, can

we just briefly say something about his life?

Yes, he was born sometime between 49 and 43 BC into a wealthy aristocratic Athenian

family.

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