Phaedrus

1. Phaedrus An Overview By Luis Escobar

2. Ojectives: • To give information that provides a historical context to Phaedrus. • Set the stage for future presentations about Phaedrus.

3. Contents • Socrates the myth • Socrates the man • The Socratic Method • The basics of Phaedrus, the dialogue • Socrates and written records

4. Socrates the Myth • He is just one of Plato’s characters. • Plato does not appear in his dialogues. • Discuss this in groups: How much of what Socrates says in Phaedrus do you think is Socrates’ historical thinking and how much was Plato? • Socrates was an anarchist. • His famous trial and execution. • Socrates was gay. • His example of the older man and his younger male lover, in Phaedrus.

5. Socrates the Character • He was a historical figure. • But others, like Aristophanes and Xenophon, also wrote works that sometimes included Socrates as a character. • Scholars can’t agree how much of the philosophy in the dialogues belonged to Socrates.

6. Socrates the Anarchist • Refuses to escape and willingly drinks the hemlock. • Never ventures to other cities in ancient Athens.

7. Socrates and Sexuality • Oxford Classical Dictionary: Athenians saw sexual intercourse between two men differently than we do today. There was no such thing as a “gay” man. • Someone with status (power) could take a lover of lesser status (power) and this was almost always a younger male. But rules said it could not be the other way around. • They saw it almost like we see a game a football with Socrates as the quarterback and all his male students as the receivers. • Socrates was married. • His wife was Xanthippe. • Had three sons by her.

8. Socrates the Man • View short video.

9. Intro to Socratic Dialogues • Used the Socratic Method. • Show the video explanation.

10. Phaedrus: Trash Facts • Written around the same time as the Republic and the Symposium. (around 370 BC) • Shows one of the rare instances when Socrates leaves downtown Athens. • Socrates actually attempts to answer the questions he poses to Phaedrus.

11. Socrates and the Written Word • Video(?) • Soc: I cannot help feeling, Phaedrus, that writing is unfortunately like painting; for the creations of the painter have the attitude of life, and yet if you ask them a question they preserve a solemn silence. And the same may be said of speeches. You would imagine that they had intelligence, but if you want to know anything and put a question to one of them, the speaker always gives one unvarying answer. And when they have been once written down they are tumbled about anywhere among those who may or may not understand them, and know not to whom they should reply, to whom not: and, if they are maltreated or abused, they have no parent to protect them; and they cannot protect or defend themselves.

12. Socrates Today • Socrates and chat technology. • Examples from Ning.

13. The End!