Monday, 17 February 2025

Plato's Lysis (a dialogue on friendship)

Lysis (Friendship) By Plato Dramatized Audiobook - Audiobooks Dimension

Translation by Benjamin Jowett (1817 - 1893)



The dialogue starts at about 19:00 on the audio file.

Some thoughts on friendship

Please see comments in the following file relating to the dialogue.

A PDF file with highlights and brief comments can be found below:

Some additional resources



Wikipedia: Lysis (dialogue)


Some questions relating to friendship


In the Benjamin Jowett translation, there are some questions at the end of the Introduction section.  It is on the end of page 4 of the PDF file above.  We can discuss some of those questions.

In addition, we may ask the following:

  1. What are the different type of friendships?
  2. Why do people want to have friends?
  3. What are the characteristics or personalities that enable one to have more friends?
  4. Why do some people have a few good and close friends, some have many acquaintances, and some people are lonely?
  5. Is friendship between humans only? Could there be friendship between: a) human and pet/animal, b) animal and animal,  c) human and subject (e.g. philosophy, mathematics, science), d) human and activities (e.g. work, sports, art)?
  6. Philosophy means "love of wisdom".  Is that one of the most important type of friendship?
  7. What is friendship? (Please see for information the Wikipedia page on friendship.)
  8. What are the main themes explored in Lysis and what are some questions related to those themes? (See Wikipedia page on Lysis.)


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