Compares The Written Speech To A Painting At Phaedrus 275d?

MID-TERM ASSESSMENT: PLATO

Name: Martha Wuttipawat

SECTION A

1 Based on our reading from Meno, in what sense is Meno more of a slave than the slave boy? Why is this an important point for Plato to make? Explain your answer with references to the text of Meno.

In a conversation with Socrates, Meno asks can virtue be taught. Socrates suggests that for the two of them to know if virtue can be taught, they must first define what virtue is. Socrates asks what is virtue but Meno only gives examples of virtues, such as justice, wisdom, moderation, etc. (Meno 74b). This, however, Socrates states those are virtues but they require an overarching definition of the concept of virtue. This eventually leads up to Meno bringing up the argument of

How does this kind of speech compare to an ‘ensouled’ speech? What gives a speech ‘a soul’?

In Phaedrus 275d, Socrates compares the written speech to a painting because both are works of creativity but paints do not respond and are free to interpretation unlike some speeches. This where the concept of a soul in a speech occurs. If a speech has good rhetoric and great content it “lives” because it will not make sense if section or parts of it are taken out and essentially mutilated, like a living organism, it will no longer function properly. But if a speech is non-living, parts of it could be rearranged and the meaning would be the same or like the painting comparison the meaning would be left to interpretation since the speech could be butchered to fit anyone’s intention unlike a speech with a soul.

SECTION D

4 Why are there three speeches in Phaedrus? What point is Plato making by having three rather than simply the first and third? How does this narrative feature support the main themes of the

Socrates’ first speech is a better rendition Lysias’s argument. Rather than presenting the benefits of the non-lover, Socrates notes the cons of the lover. Eros or love is a form of madness in which the desire or lust for physical or in this case superficial beauty overpowers the pursuit of truth. The Socrates’ second speech overshadows the previous two speeches in style, length, and content. The most important ideas derive from the Great Speech or the Socrates’ second speech. The topics of the speech can be broken down roughly into three parts: the importance of madness, the soul’s immortality, and platonic love. Each speech can be link to one of the three parts of these main themes. The importance of madness creates and inspires individuals to create speeches, platonic love deals with and argues against Lysias’s purely physical and cold definition of Eros, and the soul’s immortality is related to seeking the forms or the form of Eros in the pursuit for truth or the