Naming whole and part · Lexicon

From the book

Symposium

Plato · Diotimos Editions · 2026

Orientation

At a Glance

The wordNames, forms and parts belong to Diotima’s explanation of usage.
In the SymposiumThe broad desire for good and happiness is common to all, while ordinary speakers say only some people are in love.
In this editionThe translation’s form at 205b and 205d is faithful to the noun’s classificatory use.
A place to readUniversal aim, selective everyday naming and the poetry analogy.

Meaning

Names, forms and parts belong to Diotima’s explanation of usage. The form here is a kind of activity within a broader class. It should not be capitalized automatically as a metaphysical entity.

Use in the book

The broad desire for good and happiness is common to all, while ordinary speakers say only some people are in love. Diotima does not solve this by denying the common desire. She explains the mismatch between classification and customary terminology: a whole’s name has attached to one part, leaving the other pursuits to be named differently. Making and poetry provide the comparison.

This move makes it possible to interpret money-making, athletics and philosophy as routes towards the same general aim without insisting that everyday language already calls their practitioners erotic lovers. The argument therefore neither simply defines love by current usage nor dismisses usage as meaningless. It expands the account while explaining why the name is restricted.

At the close Socrates permits Phaedrus to call his speech an encomium or whatever he likes. That freedom of naming concerns the genre of the performance, not a withdrawal of the account’s content. In both places the text asks readers not to mistake a label for the entire structure it labels.

Places to read

205a–205d2Universal aim, selective everyday naming and the poetry analogy.
212b–212cSocrates commits to the teaching while relaxing the name of his speech.

Translation in this edition

The translation’s form at 205b and 205d is faithful to the noun’s classificatory use. These occurrences are not evidence that Diotima has already introduced the final beautiful itself as a transcendent Form.

εἶδος (eidos)

eidos — Form or species within a larger class, without requiring a separately existing Form.

205b — τι εἶδος. An unspecified form of love is singled out for the common name.
205d — ἕν τι εἶδος. Those pursuing one special form receive the customary erotic labels.

Read: Naming whole and part.

μόριον (morion)

morion — A part marked off within a wider productive field.

205c — ἓν μόριον. Music and metres form the part commonly called poetry.

Read: Naming whole and part.

ὄνομα (onoma)

onoma — Name or conventional designation; its ordinary extension may be narrower than the broader account.

205d — τὸ τοῦ ὅλου ὄνομα. One form of love receives the name of the whole.

Read: Naming whole and part.

ὀνομάζω (onomazō)

onomazō — To name or give a designation.

205b — ὀνομάζομεν. Ordinary speakers impose the whole-name on a part.

Read: Naming whole and part.