Leiden University Student Repository

Debono Cauchi, Andrew (2024)

Knowledge Transfer from Presocratic Ideas to Eryximachus' Speech (Plato, 'Symposium' 185c4-188e4)

Master thesis | Classics and Ancient Civilizations (MA)

The third encomium to Love in Plato’s 'Symposium' is given by the physician Eryximachus. He discusses not only medicine, but also other disciplines such as music, astronomy, and divination. In doing so, Eryximachus seems to draw on various Presocratic philosophers. The physician cites Heraclitus directly. Moreover, the double Love seems to resemble Empedocles’ Love and Strife. Given that Eryximachus is a physician, there might also be influences of Alcmaeon. This thesis combines selected fragments attributed to these three Presocratic philosophers with the theory of knowledge transfer proposed in Kjell Arne Røvik’s monograph 'A Translation Theory of Knowledge Transfer: Learning Across Organizational Borders' (2023). In doing so, this thesis attempts to provide an innovative interpretation of the significance of these three Presocratics in Eryximachus’ speech.

Plato

Symposium

Eryximachus

Presocratics

knowledge transfer

Author

Debono Cauchi, Andrew

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Specialisation

Classics

Supervisors

Čelkytė, A.

ECTS Credits

15

Language

en