¹Baylor University

^*I am grateful to the anonymous reviewers of Polity for their helpful suggestions and to the Earhart Foundation for its generous support of my research.

Abstract

When Socrates was accused in 399 BC of corrupting the young, the harm that his one-time associate Alcibiades did to Athens provided fuel for the charges against him. By setting the Symposium in 416 BC, just one year before Alcibiades led Athens on the disastrous Sicilian expedition, Plato revisits the charge that Socrates corrupts the young. In particular, does Socrates' freedom from the accepted opinions of his city and the "universalism" of the truth he pursues find political expression in imperialistic ambitions such as Alcibiades'? Exploring the role of Alcibiades in the Symposium, including his "praise" of Socrates, I argue that Socratic philosophy properly understood is a "middle" state (e.g., between ignorance and wisdom), and as such cannot represent an escape from one's particular political community into imperialistic politics. Moreover, as a middle state it is characterized by reciprocity, and as such offers a model for political life different from Alcibiades' imperialism.