Tιμιώτερα Books, Talking Objects, Honour and Shame in the Phaedrus

Peitho 6 (1):113-146 (2015)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

In the Phaedrus, the expression τὰ γεγραμμένα φαῦλα ἀποδεῖξαι, „to demonstrate the inadequacy of its own written” could mean „to make a palinody.” The requirements to define someone as a philosopher that Socrates provides describe in theoretical and normative form what the dialogue has already represented in its dramatic form. Plato has targeted the speech of Lysias and the first speech of Socrates as belonging to a literary genre that is still in statu nascendi: a sophistic conference in which the writing is supposed to be read aloud and there is established a particularl emotional relationship between the reader and listener with the subordination of the latter to the former. For Socrates this relationship should be different and the speeches as well as books should have a completely different intent, content and form: philosopher must offer to the one whom he loves a chaste and virtuous conduct: such conduct, in its imitation of the divine, is precisely what distinguishes him from other scholars: τιμιώτερα. The philosophical relationship must involve a different kind of reading: a silent one that can neutralize the deleterious and seductive effects of the voice. This does not imply, however, that all books are the same. Philosophical writing is not a palindrome on a statue, like a picture. Its qualifying element is the linear and irreversibile sequence. Time flows between one segment and the next. Thus, thoughts presented in writing move in space, whereas characters that have thoughts in them also move over time, changing and modifying themselves. That is precisely how philosophical writing, such as the platonic dialogue, can reproduce logos.

Other Versions

No versions found

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 97,405

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Analytics

Added to PP
2019-12-06

Downloads
12 (#1,261,009)

6 months
7 (#905,261)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Cristiana Caserta
Università degli Studi di Palermo

Citations of this work

No citations found.

Add more citations

References found in this work

Platon.Léon Robin - 1935 - Paris,: F. Alcan. Edited by Plato.
Self-Knowledge in Plato's Phaedrus.Charles L. Griswold - 1986 - Philosophy and Rhetoric 24 (4):373-377.
Platone.Franco Trabattoni - 2009 - Roma: Carocci.

View all 17 references / Add more references