In Book 8 of the Republic the regime of complete equality consequent freedom deteriorates rapidly into the least free and least equal regime, namely, a tyranny. But that does not happen at Agathon's house at least at first. Instead, there is a gentlemanly order preserved through respect for the particular form of knowledge that each participant brings to the dinner setting, Xenophon in his Reminiscences of Socrates has his Socrates repeat the parable of the boat that I cited earlier from the Republic, only in Xenophon's version the men on board the ship obey the stargazer because it is in their interest to obey one who knows.
How could anyone refuse to be obedient to or be persuaded by (the Greek unites these words in one) someone who is an expert? The refusal to take the advice of the expert is punishment in itself. In such a setting democracy is neither mob rule nor competition for power; it is the acceptance of the wisdom of men who know because it is in one's own self-interest to do so. This, we should note, is the one dialogue in which Socrates admits to being an expert, albeit on the topic of love. If we think beyond democracy as being simply the assembly and the translation of popular will into public policy, we see in the openness of the setting for the Symposium, the democratic qualities of the dialogue.
At Agathon's house the night before, when the ocblos was there at it, got a thorough soaking the guests, as the themselves p They did not act in their own self-interest, as the hangovers the next day made clear, especially to Pausanias and Aristophanes .In the restructured setting where Socrates has now arrived, the doctor among those assembled, Eryximachus by name advises abstinence, and the assembly listens. He knows from his practice of medicine that drunkenness is harsh for men. No compulsion is needed to restrain drinking, only self-interested obedience to one who knows. Indeed, the assembled group concludes, through the voice of the doctor, "It has seemed best that each one drinks as much as each one wishes that there be no compulsion”. The unity between freedom and authority is achieved in Agathon's house through wisdom. Self-rule, the absence of compulsion and equality, all meld in the dramatic setting of the dialogue, but only an important caveat if the ocblos is absent.
The evening described in the symposium continues in this fashion, as the characters mimic the behavior of citizens in the ecclesia. The assembled guests now debate what they are to do, since they have agreed not to compete in drinking. As a community. They need to define that communal action which will engage them during the evening ahead. The doctor proposes to honor the god of love with speeches. Socrates with on unaccustomed note of self-assurance asserts in the language of the assembly: "No one will vote against you" and, using another term common from the discourse of the assembly, he sets the group off on their series of speeches "with good luck”. Since I am focusing on the dramatic setting here and not on the content of the marvelous speeches for which the Symposium is renowned, I will only note that apart from the disorderly hiccoughs of the comic poet Aristophanes (who disrupts the Athenian democracy as well with his outrageous parodies of the Athenian political system), the evening proceeds in an orderly fashion, each participant speaking in turn, drawing particular excellence to praise love (and, incidentally, to praise himself as well). The communal activity communally and freely decided upon has the good fortune that Socrates had wished for it.
Nevertheless, sometime during the speeches and the moderate drinking the community at Agathon's house has transformed itself. The door is closed, the order created by the community