“Athletics, Gymnastics and Agon in Plato”, eds. H. Reid, M. Ralkowski, and C.P. Zoller (Sioux City: Parnassos Press, 2020) has just been published. It will be presented by the editors on Monday 26th October at 3pm Italian time (CET) live here on Exedra Mediterranean Center’s Facebook page.

Plato’s philosophy combines competition and cooperation in pursuit of the goal of wisdom. On one level, agonism in Plato is explicit: he taught in a gymnasium and featured gymnastic training in his educational theory. On another level, it is mimetic: Socratic dialogue resembles intellectual wrestling. On a third level, it is metaphorical: the athlete’s struggle illustrates the struggle to be morally good. And at its highest level, it is divine: the human soul is a chariot that races toward heaven. This volume explores agonism in Plato on all of these levels, inviting the reader—as Plato does—to engage in the megas agōn of life.