Phaedrus
Introduction
 The Speech of Lysias

◦ Socrates’ Challenge to Lysias

Socrates’ First Speech
◦ Socrates’ Recantation
Socrates’ Second Speech
 Transition—Discussion of Rhetoric—
Discussion of Writing—Conclusion

Introduction


Setting the Stage
Who is Phaedrus?
 A friend, the first speaker in the Symposium, a
student, later exiled like Alcibiades for impiety

Who is Lysias?
 A great writer (228a)

What is Socrates’ central task?
 To “know himself”…he still hasn’t been able to
do this (229e5)
 He’s devoted to learning , but he’s not
interested in mythological explanations or
nature. (See 230d)
The Speech of Lysias
Phaedrus reads this to Socrates.
 The speech is about love “in a roundabout
way” and its point is that it is better to be
seduced by a non-lover than a lover.
 Why? There are many reasons:

Lover
Non-lover
Will change his mind
regarding favors when
desire dies down
 “Keeps an eye on the
balance sheet”
 Lacks control, easily
annoyed, jealous


Won’t, since his favors are
voluntary not forced.

Doesn’t complain…

A better friend, wants you
to become a better person.

A Moral: It’s better to have
relations with those who
aren’t sexually attracted to
you than those who are.
The Psychology of Love
Socrates’ First Speech
Socrates isn’t satisfied by Lysias’ speech,
which is repetitive and lacking in content.
 He can do better (although his ideas have
come from elsewhere).
 He presupposes the essential distinction
in Lysias’ speech, i.e., that “the lover is less
sane than the non-lover” (236b).
 Socrates gives his first speech with his
head covered—why?

Socrates’ First Speech




Towards a definition of love: A
methodological point for Socrates: we must
define our inquiry before we begin speaking
Love is defined as “unreasoning desire”
(238c), a form of hubris (excess,
outrageousness).
From this it easily follows that “a man who
is ruled by desire and is a slave to passion”
(238e) will be harmful and “not of any use
to your intellectual development” (239c) or
your physical development.
Socrates’ final warning (241c)
Socrates’ Recantation
Both speeches so far were horrible. Isn’t
Love a god or something divine? In which
case he can’t be bad in any way.
 So Socrates has to purify himself and
does so by offering a Palinode (a “takingit-back” poem) to Love.
 Away from the negative: Socrates wants
“to wash out the bitterness of what we’ve
heard with a more tasteful speech”
(243d).

Socrates’ Second Speech

Introduction
 On the authorship of the speech (244a)

Starting Point:
 Madness (mania) is not always bad…
 “in fact the best things we have come from
madness, when it is given as a gift of the god” (244a)

Examples:
 Prophets, those who foretell the future
 Mystics, discoverers of rites and purifications
 Poets, those possessed by the Muses

And now we must prove that the madness of
lovers is also divine.
On the Nature of the Soul






The soul is immortal, it is a self-mover distinct
from the body.
The structure of what the soul is like:
“the natural union of a team of winged horses
and their charioteer” (246a).
The souls of the gods and their view of “what
really is what it is” (247e) (e.g., Justice, Selfcontrol, Knowledge).
The hierarchy of human souls and their behavior
(248a-249b): On philosophers and the “rat-race”
The theory of recollection (249c): Only humans
have seen the truth.
On the 4th Kind of Madness

The idea of Beauty (249d-250d)
 …and the face (254b)





The effects of Beauty on embodied human souls
(250e-252b)… “this is the experience we
humans call love.”
The behavior of the lover: how to capture the
beloved (253c-254e)
The behavior of the beloved (255a-256a)
Different ways of living for different souls (256a256e)
Conclusion (256e-257b): the only way to grow
wings is through love, so the companionship of
non-lover should be avoided.