Rhetoric And Reality In Plato S Phaedrus

The Phaedrus is well-known for the splendid mythical panorama Socrates develops in his second speech, and for its graphic descriptions of erotic behavior. This book shows how the details of the myth and the accounts of interaction between lovers are based on a carefully articulated metaphysical structure. It follows the dialogue as narrated, showing how passages that may not appear relevant to metaphysics have been deployed to heighten the vision of reality that Socrates develops in his second speech and concludes with an Epilogue in which the metaphysical principles adumbrated in the dialogue are ordered and briefly developed. This Epilogue helps illustrate the continuity between the Phaedrus and subsequent dialogues, such as the Parmenides, Sophist, Statesman, and Philebus, in which methodological and metaphysical concerns are dominant for Plato. As a result, new connections emerge between the metaphysical domain in Plato's thought and the more visible and vibrant areas of the psychology of eros and practical rhetoric. -- Back cover.

The Phaedrus is well-known for the splendid mythical panorama Socrates develops in his second speech, and for its graphic descriptions of erotic behavior. This book shows how the details of the myth and the accounts of interaction between lovers are based on a carefully articulated metaphysical structure. It follows the dialogue as narrated, showing how passages that may not appear relevant to metaphysics have been deployed to heighten the vision of reality that Socrates develops in his second speech and concludes with an Epilogue in which the metaphysical principles adumbrated in the dialogue are ordered and briefly developed. This Epilogue helps illustrate the continuity between the Phaedrus and subsequent dialogues, such as the Parmenides, Sophist, Statesman, and Philebus, in which methodological and metaphysical concerns are dominant for Plato. As a result, new connections emerge between the metaphysical domain in Plato's thought and the more visible and vibrant areas of the psychology of eros and practical rhetoric. -- Back cover.

Plato is a well-known critic of rhetoric, but in the Phaedrus, he defends the art of rhetoric, arguing that it can be perfected with the aid of philosophy. In Reason, Rhetoric, and the Philosophical Life in Plato’s Phaedrus, Tiago Lier provides a new and comprehensive interpretation of this important dialogue. He argues that Plato’s defense of rhetoric is based on philosophy’s ethical nature, and that philosophy is a way of life rather than a body of knowledge. For Plato, an essential element of both rhetoric and the philosophical life is that every use of speech, whether to persuade or to learn, depends upon the psychology of the speaker and the audience. Lier shows how Socrates develops a dynamic account of this psychology over the course of the dialogue in order to help Phaedrus understand how he is personally engaged in, and shaped by, every act of communication. Only when we grasp the tension between eros and logos will we discover the limitations of the art of rhetoric and that rhetoric alone cannot show us what we truly desire. Instead, Lier concludes, the greatest power of speech is to reveal to ourselves our own desires and understanding of our place in the world. This continual self-reflection is the philosophical life around which Socrates and Plato fashion their distinctive forms of rhetoric. The insights developed in this book will be of particular relevance to students and scholars of ancient philosophy, classics, and rhetorical theory, but it will also be of interest to those working in political science, literary studies, and communication studies.

This is an English translation of one of Plato's least political dialogues of Socrates and Phaedrus discussing many themes: the art and practice of rhetoric, love, reincarnation, and the soul. It includes an introduction, notes, glossary, appendices, and an interpretive essay and introduction. Also included are rarely seen illustrations, stone carvings, and vase paintings. Focus Philosophical Library translations are close to and are non-interpretative of the original text, with the notes and a glossary intending to provide the reader with some sense of the terms and the concepts as they were understood by Plato’s immediate audience.

Plato’s dialogues frequently cover several topics and show their connection to each other. The "Phaedrus" is a model of that skill because of its seamless progression from examples of speeches about the nature of love to mythical visions of human nature and destiny to the essence of beauty and, finally, to a penetrating discussion of speaking and writing. It ends with an examination of the love of wisdom as a dialectical activity in the human mind. Plato lived in Athens, Greece. He wrote approximately two-dozen dialogues that explore core topics that are essential to all human beings. Although the historical Socrates was a strong influence on Plato, the character by that name that appears in many of his dialogues is a product of Plato’s fertile imagination. All of Plato’s dialogues are written in a poetic form that his student Aristotle called "Socratic dialogue." In the twentieth century, the British philosopher and logician Alfred North Whitehead characterized the entire European philosophical tradition as "a series of footnotes to Plato." Philosophy for Plato was not a set of doctrines but a goal — not the possession of wisdom but the love of wisdom. Agora Publications offers these performances based on the assumption that Plato wrote these works to be performed by actors in order to stimulate additional dialogue among those who listen to them.

Set in the idyllic countryside outside Athens, the Phraedrusis a dialogue between the philosopher Socrates and his friend Phaedrus, inspired by their reading of a clumsy speech by the writer Lysias on the nature of love. Their conversation develops into a wide-ranging discussion on such subjects as the pursuit of beauty, the immortality of the soul and the attainment of truth, and ends with an in-depth consideration of the principles of rhetoric. Probably a work of Plato's maturity, the Phaedrusrepresents a high point in his achievement as a writer. This volume also contains two of his letters, which discuss his involvement in politics, in particular his role as adviser to Dionysius II of Syracuse, which are crucial documents for our understanding of Plato's life and career.

The Phaedrus, written by Plato, is a dialogue between Plato's protagonist, Socrates, and Phaedrus, an interlocutor in several dialogues. The Phaedrus was presumably composed around 370 BC, about the same time as Plato's Republic and Symposium.

Socrates. My dear Phaedrus, whence come you, and whither are you going? Phaedrus. I come from Lysias the son of Cephalus, and I am going to take a walk outside the wall, for I have been sitting with him the whole morning; and our common friend Acumenus tells me that it is much more refreshing to walk in the open air than to be shut up in a cloister. Soc. There he is right. Lysias then, I suppose, was in the town? Phaedr. Yes, he was staying with Epicrates, here at the house of Morychus; that house which is near the temple of Olympian Zeus.