Diotima is most well-known from her discussion of beauty in Plato’s Symposium. Details about her biography are highly controversial, and many today assume she is a fictional entity; but there are good reasons to question this assumption (and, indeed, most thinkers until the mid-nineteenth century did not share this view). This is important not only because her ideas about beauty, truth and goodness played a formative role in the development of western philosophy, but also because she figured as a critical model for thinkers across the centuries – especially women thinkers.
The aim of this masterclass is to discover how the figure of Diotima was received over the history of philosophy – especially by women philosophers, who not only engaged with the themes of The Symposium but who also modelled themselves on Diotima, as teacher, friend, and inspirator of Socrates. The masterclass will consider how Diotima’s ideas about beauty, truth and goodness were received at various moments in the history of philosophy and how the figure of Diotima was interpreted. We will focus on three historical periods: the ancient context, in which Diotima (ostensibly) lived, the late Hellenistic/early Medieval period, and the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
Open to Honours, PhD students and ECRs in all relevant disciplines, our masterclass wil explore the historical figure of Diotima and the role she played in western philosophy- whether by forming our understanding of beauty, truth and goodness, or by providing women with a critical model for how to understand themselves as thinkers.
Space is limited and all attending must submit an Expression of Interest (EOI) no later than 1 October 2025.
EOI: please include a 300-word summary of your interests/why you’d like to attend + CV..
Please send EOI to dalia.nassar@sydney.edu.au and Emily.hulme@sydney.edu.au
This masterclass is organised in conjunction with the University of Notre Dame Australia conference, Women in the History of Philosophy of Nature, 26-27 November.
