Plato's Symposium to Be Foundation of Upcoming Conference

Skidmore's Department of Philosophy and Religion will host a conference on Plato's Symposium Saturday and Sunday, April 8-9, in the Surrey Williamson Inn. Admission is free and open to the public.

The dialogue is composed of a series of speeches in praise of the god Eros offered in playful, though earnest, competition. It is at once a rich, dramatic portrait of the intellectual culture of classical Athens and an inspiration to those of any era who want to think seriously about the phenomenon of erotic love.

Challenging the notion that Plato's thought is to be found only in the words of Socrates, department faculty and guest scholars intend to read the dialogue as a whole, giving equal attention to each character's encomium. Speakers include the following:

Francisco Gonzalez, associate professor of philosophy at Skidmore, author of Dialectic and Dialogue: Plato's Practice of Philosophical Inquiry and editor of and contributor to the volume The Third Way: New Directions in Platonic Studies. He also has published numerous articles on the philosophy and interpretation of Plato and Aristotle;

David Roochnik, professor of philosophy at Boston University, author most recently of Beautiful City: The Dialectical Character of Plato's Republic and Retrieving the Ancients: An Introduction to Greek Philosophy, as well as many articles on Plato's philosophy;

Mitchell Miller, professor of philosophy at Vassar College, author of Plato's Parmenides: The Conversion of the Soul and The Philosopher in Plato's Statesman, as well articles on Plato, Hesiod, and Parmenides;

Mark Munn, associate professor of history and classics and ancient Mediterranean studies at the Pennsylvania State University, author of The School of History: Athens in the Age of Socrates as well as numerous articles, book chapters, and encyclopedia entries on the history and culture of classical Greece;

Bernard Freydberg, professor of philosophy at Slippery Rock University, author of The Play of the Platonic Dialogues and Provocative Form in Plato, Kant, Nietzsche (And Others), as well as numerous articles on Plato, Kant, and Nietzsche;

Robert Metcalf, assistant professor of philosophy at the University of Colorado at Denver, author of several articles on Plato, ethics, and rhetoric;

Eric Sanday, who teaches philosophy at Marquette University, author of several articles and numerous conference presentations on the philosophies of Plato and Aristotle;

Gregory Recco, visiting assistant professor of philosophy at Skidmore, author of a book on Plato, Athens Victorious: Democracy in Plato's Republic.

For further information, contact Recco by e-mail at grecco@skidmore.edu, or at 518-580-8304.