Plato is philosophy—and the best introduction to Plato is First Alcibiades. In antiquity, it was the first dialogue that students of Plato would read, because it “contains the whole philosophy of Plato, as in a seed.” It tells the transformative story of a young, spirited Alcibiades being invited to the philosophic life by Socrates. First Alcibiades is a beautiful dialogue. Enjoy.
Here are the Ascend Book Club materials to help you read:
Detailed Q&A guide with introductions, outline, and more on First Alcibiades
Video: Who was Alcibiades? with Dr. Alex Petkas of Cost of Glory (below)
Videos: First Alcibiades with Alec Bianco & Athenian Stranger (below)
First Alcibiades is the dialogue serious students of Plato turn to first. Be sure to also check out our Introduction to Plato and “What Dialogue of Plato Should I Read First?” for a commentary on other good options.
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Introduction
First Alcibiades is both the beginning and a summation of Platonic philosophy. The dialogue “held pride of place in later antiquity as the ideal work with which to begin the study of Platonic philosophy.”[1] Its traditional subtitle was “on the nature of man,” and it was said First Alcibiades “contains the whole philosophy of Plato, as in a seed.”[2] The Islamic commentator, Al-Farabi, said that in First Alcibiades “all the Platonic questions are raised as if for the first time.”
At the heart of the dialogue is the maxim “know thyself,” which is in turn at the heart of the philosophic life. Plato uses a dialogue between a young Alcibiades, age twenty, and an older Socrates, age forty, to explore the Delphic maxim within the context of a teacher and student.[3] The relationship of the teacher as a lover of the soul of the student gave rise to the term “Platonic love,” an intense, but non-sexual love in pursuit of excellence.[4]
The dramatic date of the dialogue is approximately 433 BC.[5] The composition date is a complicated question. First Alcibiades is considered by many to be a spurious dialogue or rather a dialogue written later by Platonists and not Plato. The dialogue sometimes has an earlier date around 390s BC and a later date in the 350s BC.[6] Some also hold the dialogue is a composite text with some of it being written by Plato and some of it being written by a later Platonist.
It should be noted, however, that antiquity held that the dialogue was written by Plato, and the idea that it was not originated recently in nineteenth century German scholarship.[7] For our purposes, we will side with antiquity and default to Plato as the authentic author.
Video Discussions
There are three video discussions on First Alcibiades. The first introduces Alcibiades as a historical character as presented in Plutarch’s Lives. The second and third are rich, robust conversations on the text with Alec Bianco and the Athenian Stranger.
Good work! Reading First Alcibiades well is a tremendous accomplishment in your studies on Plato. It is a beautiful dialogue, and one worth taking seriously. From here, the Ascend Book Club moves to the Euthyphro, the Apology, the Crito, and then the Phaedo—these together represent the last days of Socrates.
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Dcn. Harrison Garlick lives in rural Oklahoma with his wife and five children. He serves as a deacon at Holy Family Cathedral and as Chancellor & General Counsel for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tulsa. Follow him on X at Dcn. Garlick or Ascend.
[1] Plato, Complete Works, ed. John M. Cooper and D. S. Hutchinson (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing, 1997), 557.
[2] Plato, The Roots of Political Philosophy: Ten Forgotten Socratic Dialogues, ed. Thomas L. Pangle (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1987), 222.
[3] Pangle, 222, fn.2.
[4] Id.
[5] Id.
[6] Cooper, 558.
[7] Cooper, 557-8.