Plato Phaedrus

treats a range of important philosophical issues – metaphysics—a branch of philosophy that deals in fundamental questions and concepts: what is "existence"? what is "real"? what is "time"? – the philosophy of love – the relation of language to reality, especially to the practices of rhetoric and writing

Phaedrus Socrates, who appears in the Phaedrus, is to some extent a character invented by Plato By the time Plato composed the Phaedrus, he was using Socrates's dramatic encounters with other characters to stage a presentation of his own philosophy Classical scholarship generally places the composition of the Phaedrus between the years 375 and 365

Phaedrus Written in the form of a dialectic Specifically, the dialectical question-and- answer method elenchus—specific question- and-answer technique Socrates used to show his partners in conversation that their fundamental assumptions and beliefs are inconsistent

Phaedrus Socrates: “Phaedrus, my friend! Where are you going? And where have you been?” The approach of the Phaedrus – Socrates meets Phaedrus, who has just come from a performance by – Lysias, a well-known orator – Socrates agrees to accompany him on a walk outside the walls of Athens – Phaedrus then reads Lysias's speech to Socrates

Phaedrus: Writing The problem Socrates sees with writing is that it is a "copy of a copy", twice removed from the true Form corresponding to whatever phenomena it attempts to represent. Because a piece of writing can travel far from its source (which for Plato appears to be the human voice of which it is a physical copy), it cannot be trusted to convey the message as faithfully as the speaker could in person.

Phaedrus: Rhetoric Lysias's goal is persuading his audience of the validity of his immediate argument and of the power of rhetoric itself. his speech is an attempt at seduction because the seductive nature of rhetoric--the capacity of skillful language to sway the desires of its audience—is what Socrates criticizes. Socrates's emphasizes ethical problems of the orator's manipulation of the listeners Socrates charges that Lysias falls short of representing reality and thus fails to convey the truth.