PhaedrusPhaedrusIntroductionThe Speech of Lysias

◦Socrates’ Challenge to LysiasSocrates’ First Speech

◦Socrates’ RecantationSocrates’ Second SpeechTransition—Discussion of

Rhetoric—Discussion of Writing—Conclusion

IntroductionIntroduction Setting the Stage Who is Phaedrus?

A friend, the first speaker in the Symposium, a student, later exiled like Alcibiades for impiety

Who is Lysias?A great writer (228a)

What is Socrates’ central task?To “know himself”…he still hasn’t

been able to do this (229e5)He’s devoted to learning , but he’s not

interested in mythological explanations or nature. (See 230d)

The Speech of LysiasThe Speech of LysiasPhaedrus reads this to Socrates. The speech is about love “in a

roundabout way” and its point is that it is better to be seduced by a non-lover than a lover.

Why? There are many reasons:

The Psychology of LoveThe Psychology of Love

Lover Non-lover

Will change his mind regarding favors when desire dies down

“Keeps an eye on the balance sheet”

Lacks control, easily annoyed, jealous

Won’t, since his favors are voluntary not forced.

Doesn’t complain… A better friend, wants

you to become a better person.

A Moral: It’s better to have relations with those who aren’t sexually attracted to you than those who are.

Socrates’ First SpeechSocrates’ First SpeechSocrates isn’t satisfied by Lysias’

speech, which is repetitive and lacking in content.

He can do better (although his ideas have come from elsewhere).

He presupposes the essential distinction in Lysias’ speech, i.e., that “the lover is less sane than the non-lover” (236b).

Socrates gives his first speech with his head covered—why?

Socrates’ First SpeechSocrates’ First Speech Towards a definition of love: A

methodological point for Socrates: we must define our inquiry before we begin speaking

Love is defined as “unreasoning desire” (238c), a form of hubris (excess, outrageousness).

From this it easily follows that “a man who is ruled by desire and is a slave to passion” (238e) will be harmful and “not of any use to your intellectual development” (239c) or your physical development.

Socrates’ final warning (241c)

Socrates’ RecantationSocrates’ RecantationBoth speeches so far were horrible.

Isn’t Love a god or something divine? In which case he can’t be bad in any way.

So Socrates has to purify himself and does so by offering a Palinode (a “taking-it-back” poem) to Love.

Away from the negative: Socrates wants “to wash out the bitterness of what we’ve heard with a more tasteful speech” (243d).

Socrates’ Second SpeechSocrates’ Second Speech Introduction

On the authorship of the speech (244a) Starting Point:

Madness (mania) is not always bad…“in fact the best things we have come

from madness, when it is given as a gift of the god” (244a)

Examples:Prophets, those who foretell the futureMystics, discoverers of rites and

purificationsPoets, those possessed by the Muses

And now we must prove that the madness of lovers is also divine.

On the Nature of the SoulOn the Nature of the Soul The soul is immortal, it is a self-mover

distinct from the body. The structure of what the soul is like: “the natural union of a team of winged

horses and their charioteer” (246a). The souls of the gods and their view of

“what really is what it is” (247e) (e.g., Justice, Self-control, Knowledge).

The hierarchy of human souls and their behavior (248a-249b): On philosophers and the “rat-race”

The theory of recollection (249c): Only humans have seen the truth.

On the 4On the 4thth Kind of Kind of MadnessMadness The idea of Beauty (249d-250d)

…and the face (254b) The effects of Beauty on embodied

human souls (250e-252b)… “this is the experience we humans call love.”

The behavior of the lover: how to capture the beloved (253c-254e)

The behavior of the beloved (255a-256a) Different ways of living for different souls

(256a-256e) Conclusion (256e-257b): the only way to

grow wings is through love, so the companionship of non-lover should be avoided.