Socrates at Play

Although we have the complete works of two major Socratic writers, Plato and Xenophon, little work has been done to bring them into relation with each other, other than investigating them as sources for the historical Socrates. Today an emerging consensus holds that neither author aimed at historical veracity, and that the portraits of Socrates primarily express the views of their authors. This book analyzes the behavior of Socrates and other characters in the two Symposia through the lens of the social virtues discussed by Aristotle in his Nichomachean Ethics: friendliness, truthfulness in self-presentation, and good humor. Starting with the prologues to the two Symposia and Republic, which is closely related to them, the book sketches a portrait of Socrates as a social creature. It focuses on Socratic boasting in Plato’s Symposium and Socratic joking in Xenophon’s Symposium, highlighting the virtuosity of Socrates’ social techniques and showing how he presses the limits of good behavior in both his self-presentation and his use of humor. The book concludes that this was a feature of the historical Socrates and that it inspired Plato and Xenophon to conceive of virtue in characteristically different ways.