Laughter and frankness · Lexicon

From the book

Symposium

Plato · Diotimos Editions · 2026

Orientation

At a Glance

The wordThe vocabulary distinguishes the laughable thing, the act of laughing, and frank speech that exposes its speaker.
In the SymposiumAristodemus’ arrival without the man who invited him becomes a small comedy of misplaced expectation.
In this edition“Frankness” is the edition’s rendering of parrhēsia.
A place to readA missed companion makes an arrival comic.

Meaning

The vocabulary distinguishes the laughable thing, the act of laughing, and frank speech that exposes its speaker. Frankness describes openness; it does not guarantee freedom from interested motives or complete self-understanding.

Use in the book

Aristodemus’ arrival without the man who invited him becomes a small comedy of misplaced expectation. At 189b Aristophanes distinguishes laughable things, welcome to his comic Muse, from ridiculous things that invite derision. A comic speaker need not renounce intellectual responsibility in order to amuse. Alcibiades later worries that drunkenness will make the others laugh, and Socrates expects that his praise may make him more ridiculous. Alcibiades answers that his likeness aims at truth rather than laughter. The distinction leaves room for a truthful account that is funny; it denies that ridicule is its sufficient purpose.

Near the end, the same problem becomes a test of listening. Socrates’ recurring examples of ordinary crafts and animals make his speeches seem ridiculous at first. Alcibiades says an inexperienced and senseless hearer laughs at the exterior instead of looking inside. Laughter here signals a premature judgement. Yet the party’s own laughter at Alcibiades’ frankness is also intelligible: he has openly revealed the love and wounded pride still governing him.

Socrates then gives that openness a further reading. Alcibiades has, he says, hidden a wish to monopolise Socrates and Agathon inside his praise. Being candid about one’s feelings is therefore compatible with arranging a speech to achieve a social end. The dialogue allows laughter to accompany recognition, vanity, misunderstanding, and genuine insight rather than assigning it one fixed philosophical value.

Places to read

174e–175a2A missed companion makes an arrival comic.
189bAristophanes separates welcome comic effect from being made an object of derision.
212e–215a2 3 4Drunkenness and likeness raise the question whether praise will become ridicule.
221e–222aLaughter at the exterior of Socratic speech can block its sense.
222c–223a2The party laughs at frankness and a rivalry over the couch follows.

Translation in this edition

“Frankness” is the edition’s rendering of parrhēsia. The passage does not call Alcibiades’ speech a formal exercise of political free speech. “Laughable” can denote an amusing scene as well as a dismissive judgement; each use requires its local target.

γελοῖος (geloios)

geloios — Laughable or amusing; appearance of absurdity may invite or obstruct understanding.

174e — γελοῖον. Aristodemus calls his unaccompanied arrival laughable.
221e — γελοῖοι. Socrates’ speeches initially appear laughable.

Read: Laughter and frankness.

γέλως (gelōs)

gelōs — Laughter, whose target and cause range from a comic incident to a person’s revealing confession.

222c — γέλωτα. The company laughs at Alcibiades’ frankness and continued love for Socrates.

Read: Laughter and frankness.

καταγέλαστος (katagelastos)

katagelastos — Ridiculous or deserving derisive laughter, contrasted by Aristophanes with welcome comic amusement.

189b — καταγέλαστα. Aristophanes fears ridiculous rather than merely laughable things.

Read: Laughter and frankness.

παρρησία (parrhēsia)

parrhēsia — Frankness or speaking openly, here the quality noticed in Alcibiades’ intimate disclosure.

222c — παρρησίᾳ. The narrator names the openness of the speech as the occasion of laughter.

Read: Laughter and frankness.