Plato's Phaedrus: Summary and Analysis

In today's lesson we are going to travel to Ancient Greece to study one of the most important works of Plato (327-347 BC) C.), Phaedrus or of Beauty (370 a. C). Work that takes us into a platonic dialogue starring Phaedrus and the philosopher Socrates. Thus, throughout the entire dialogue both characters discuss through different dialogues about the love, erotica, beauty, the destiny of souls, death, nature, destiny, ethics, rhetoric and communication.n. highlighting especially the myth of the winged chariot.

In this way, Phaedrus stands as the work of Plato that fuses themes treated in other works such as love in The banquet or destiny in The Republic. If you want to read a summary of Phaedrus of Plato and analysis, pay attention because in a PROFESOR we explain everything to you.

Index

1. Context of Plato's Phaedrus
2. Brief Analysis of Plato's Phaedrus
3. Brief Summary of Plato's Phaedrus
4. Phaedrus Characters
5. The myth of the winged chariot
6. Myth of Thamus and Theuth

Before going into the summary of Phaedrus of Plato, we first have to explain who its author is and the context in which the work takes place. In this way, we know that Plato He was born in Athens around the year 427 BC. C., within an aristocratic family and related to the politician solon (Seven Sages of Greece).

From a very young age he was attracted to philosophy and soon began to frequent the environment of Socrates, becoming one of his foremost disciples. However, after the death sentence imposed on his teacher, he was forced to leave Athens and would not return until 387 BC. c. Moment in which he founded the Academy, which became one of the most important centers of knowledge until it was closed in 86 BC. c. (Justinian)

Regarding the context of the work of Phaedrus, falls within the maturity stage of Plato and the final period of Classical Greece. A moment that was characterized by a first spartan hegemony on the Greek sphere, the political decline of Athens after her defeat in the Peloponnesian War, a second hegemony stars in the city of Thebes (371 a. C.) after several conflicts with Sparta, the general crisis of the city-states, the disintegration of the population and the incipient rise of Macedonia and Hellenism.

The work Phaedrus it's a mimetic dialogue (the characters are the ones who guide without any type of narration) starring Phaedrus and Socrates through various speeches in which the two protagonists tell us about the love, erotica, beauty, the destiny of souls, death, nature, destiny, ethics, rhetoric, dialectics and writing.

Likewise, this mature work of Plato is usually divided into two or three parts, which in turn are made up of several speeches:

1. First part: Meeting of Phaedrus with Socrates, reproduction of Lysias's speech by Phaedrus to Socrates and beginning of the dialogue between the two protagonists.
2. Socrates' first speech: Socrates analyzes / refutes the speech of Lysias, he tells us about desire / love (desire as good senseand desire like debauchery) and of beauty.
3. Socrates' second speech: The philosopher analyzes what is madness as a human disease and as divine inspiration (prophetic of Apollo, poetic of the Muses, Corporal of Aphrodite and mystical of Dionysus). Also, he tells us about soul and the fate of him (myth of the winged chariot) and of rhetoric/dialectics or the art of speech (myth of Thamus and Theuth).

Here is a summary of Phaedrus of Plato so that you know better what this outstanding work in philosophy is about:

• Phaedrus meets Socrates outside the walls of Athens and he informs her that he is carrying a speech about love written by Lysias. Given this, Socrates asks Phaedrus to read the speech.
• They both sit under the shade of a banana tree and the young Phaedrus reads the speech, in which Lysias affirms that it is better to love someone who does not love and not the lover, that is, it is better to correspond to the requirements of that person whom you do not love.
• Socrates begins his commentary on Lysias's speech: It establishes that said question lies in the fact that it is necessary to know what is love and that this is a desire or impulse towards beauty, but that it can also be a disease or dementia, since it can harm the loved one.
• Socrates is aware that he has insulted the gods Aphrodite and Eros, since to speak in a negative sense of love is to offend the gods because love is a divinity. In this way, the philosopher changes his point of view and affirms that the insanity caused by love can be good and that the lover must be reciprocated. Likewise, he tells us about the immortality of souls, their destiny and how they came to occupy the body of human beings.
• The conversation between Socrates and Phaedrus changes and leads to a new debate which revolves around rhetoric and whether it is good or bad to write a speech. So for Socrates the art of rhetoric, that is, the truth or "leading souls through words" must be grounded in knowledge and one must always have a perception of what is going to be spoken, for what and for whom. Therefore, a speech does not need to be written, it should not be designed to drive opinion where one wants it, it should not turn lies into truth, and it should not manipulate. That is, Plato criticizes the sophistical method of characters like Gorgias or Lisias.

In Phaedrus, the two protagonists stand out, Phaedrus and Socrates, and a third that appears mentioned by Phaedrus himself, Lysias.

Phaedrus, 450-393 BC. c.

His name means brilliant, it is believed that he was born in Athens 450-500 BC. c. within a wealthy family (Plato's cousin) and who was close to the circle of followers of Socrates. This appears in various works of Plato known as the erotic dialogues (Phaedrus, The Feast and Protagoras) and he is portrayed as a cultured and naive young man. He is believed to have died early in approximately 393 BC. c.

Socrates, 470-399 BC. c.

Socrates was born in Athens around 470 BC. c. in the bosom of a humble family (his father was a sculptor and his mother a midwife), which is why he received a basic education and, before standing out as a philosopher, worked as a bricklayer and fought in the Battle of Potidaea (432 BC) C.). However, he also stood out as a disciple of the Philosopher Archelaus (S.V. a. C.) and, little by little, he excelled as a speaker, creating around him a whole group of disciples like Plato.

Likewise, he also became an awkward character for the tyranny of Critias and in the year 399 a. c. he was sentenced to death for corrupting the youth and for not recognizing the gods. He died at the age of 71 him by drinking a glass of hemlock, but his legacy did not, because on his death the Socratic school and Platonic academy.

Lysias, 458-380 BC. c.

He is considered one of the great orators of classical Greece, however he was nosy (foreigner) and never had Athenian citizenship. Precisely because of his condition as a metic during the government of the "Thirty Tyrants" lost all his possessions.

Lysias devoted himself to teaching rhetoric, to politics and to writing legal speeches on request. Among those that stand out: Against Eratosthenes, Defense at the trial against Simon and On the murder of Eratosthenes. Likewise, it is also mentioned in two of Plato's works: Republic and Phaedrus.

The myth of the winged chariot it is a joy that Plato uses to explain the vision of his soul. Thus, through Socrates he tells us that the soul is tripartite and winged:

“… The soul is like a chariot and a charioteer that form a unit. Now: The horses and charioteers of the souls of the gods are all good and of excellent lineage; those of the other souls, however, are mixed. Our charioteer governs a driving couple; one of his horses is beautiful and good and of similar parents, the other is the opposite in both respects. That is why driving is hard and difficult for us…”

Therefore, for Plato it is composed of three parts that represent three souls: the appetitive, the emotional and rational or irascible and the rational and intelligible:

1. Epithimethikon: appetite = the bad horse (black and immoral).
2. Thymoeides: courage = the good horse (white and virtuous).
3. Logistics: reason and intellect/logos= the charioteer.

Likewise, in this allegory we are told that the charioteer leads two horses who are opposite and who wish to take different directions, therefore, if the car does not steer well the soul can fall to the earthly world and occupy a body, losing its wings. In this sense, a soul can only regain its wings if it lives a philosophical life for three lives (1000 years).

The myth of Thamus and Theuth is explained by Socrates to Phaedrus when they discuss the writing. To do this, Socrates turns to a myth that he places in Egypt: The god Theuth (Thoth) invented writing and showed it to the king of Egypt Thamus, telling him that with it the Egyptians would be wiser and develop memory. However, the king replied that writing does not make a person wiser, but rather proclaims the presumption of wisdom (not wisdom as such) and that it would not help to increase memory, but to neglect it.

“… The same thing happens to written words. It would be believed that they speak as if they were thinking, but if you ask them with the desire to find out about something that was said, they express only one thing that is always the same. On the other hand, it is enough that something has been written only once, for the writing to circulate everywhere the same among the understood that among those who are not concerned at all, without being able to say who should be interested and who No…"

This "negative" idea about writing must be framed in the figure of Socrates, who did not write anything. However, Plato did write various works, however, he always proclaimed that it should be be careful with writing and that it was not a priority, the priority was in conversation and education.

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• Plato. (2017). Phaedrus. Translation and editing by Antonio Alegre Gorri. Gredos.
• Barcelo, P. (2001).Brief history of Greece and Rome.alliance