Een beetje onsterfelijk

Abstract

Summary The present article discusses three hotly debated interpretational issues in Diotima´s speech in Plato´s Symposium. The first of these is the relationship of Diotima´s speech to other dialogues, such as the Phaedo and the Republic, with regard to the immortality of the soul. It is argued that there is no discrepancy at all, because the immortality of the soul does not play any role in the Symposium. The second issue is the nature of the three classes of posterity: biological, spiritual and philosophical. Whereas the posterity of the first two classes can be relatively easily defined, the character of the philosopher´s posterity, ‘true virtue’, remains rather vague. It may consist in dialectical teaching of the Idea of Beauty by Socrates. Thirdly, it is argued that the philosopher´s immortality differs only gradually from the immortality of the other two classes, that is, the philosopher as a man only survives by means of his posterity.