Plato

1. Plato Phaedrus

2. Phaedrus • treats a range of important philosophical issues • metaphysics—a branch of philosophy that deals in fundamental questions and concepts: what is "existence"? what is "real"? what is "time"? • the philosophy of love • the relation of language to reality, especially to the practices of rhetoric and writing

3. Phaedrus • Socrates, who appears in the Phaedrus, is to some extent a character invented by Plato • By the time Plato composed the Phaedrus, he was using Socrates's dramatic encounters with other characters to stage a presentation of his own philosophy • Classical scholarship generally places the composition of the Phaedrus between the years 375 and 365

4. Phaedrus • Written in the form of a dialectic • Specifically, the dialectical question-and-answer method elenchus—specific question-and-answer technique Socrates used to show his partners in conversation that their fundamental assumptions and beliefs are inconsistent

5. Phaedrus • Socrates: “Phaedrus, my friend! Where are you going? And where have you been?” • The approach of the Phaedrus • Socrates meets Phaedrus, who has just come from a performance by • Lysias, a well-known orator • Socrates agrees to accompany him on a walk outside the walls of Athens • Phaedrus then reads Lysias's speech to Socrates

6. Phaedrus: Writing • The problem Socrates sees with writing is that it is a "copy of a copy", twice removed from the true Form corresponding to whatever phenomena it attempts to represent. • Because a piece of writing can travel far from its source (which for Plato appears to be the human voice of which it is a physical copy), it cannot be trusted to convey the message as faithfully as the speaker could in person.

7. Phaedrus: Rhetoric • Lysias's goal is persuading his audience of the validity of his immediate argument and of the power of rhetoric itself. • his speech is an attempt at seduction because the seductive nature of rhetoric--the capacity of skillful language to sway the desires of its audience—is what Socrates criticizes. • Socrates's emphasizes ethical problems of the orator's manipulation of the listeners • Socrates charges that Lysias falls short of representing reality and thus fails to convey the truth.