B&N Page
Alternately titled "Rival Lovers," "The Lovers," or, simply, "Lovers," this is one of the Socratic dialogues whose authorship by Plato is in doubt. While it follows the general approach of Plato's dialogues, it does present a few anomalies, and so some experts include it while others do not.
In the dialogue, Socrates questions two youths, one athlete and one scholar, on the nature of philosophy, whether it is honorable, good, useful, and of what its study should optimally consist. The dialogue opens with Socrates questioning the athlete about what two other young men are discussing, when the athlete suggests that it's just navel-gazing, Socrates asks the athlete whether he believes philosophizing to be a shameful endeavor. He does, and Socrates ends up spending most of his time questioning the scholar, who has a more flattering view of philosophy.
The scholar proposes that philosophy is learning, and that the philosopher should learn about all subjects - being the intellectual equivalent of the all-around athlete from athletics. Socrates challenges this by suggesting that the philosopher cannot be both useful and a generalist as the scholar claims because then the philosopher will always be of secondary value to the expert. Socrates seems to be setting up that there must be some expertise of philosophy about which the philosopher would be the first-tier expert. In other words, if philosophy is a worthwhile endeavor, there must be some reason that people would seek out a philosopher, rather than someone else. The dialogue ends abruptly, and does not engage in this question. (The ending is one of the reasons why authorship is in question, but it's not the only Socratic dialogue to set out food-for-thought and leave it on the plate.)
Despite the unclear authorship, I found this dialogue to be worth a read.
