Phaedrus Essay

fragmentation, Pirsig faces his own personal crisis of fragmentation or "madness." Some years earlier he had been declared clinically insane, and underwent electro-shock therapy to annihilate his mad personality. This earlier self, whom he now calls "Phaedrus," had gone mad as a result of a search for Truth which led him ultimately to repudiate Reason itself.[1] Pursuing the "ghost of reason" through

While Phaedrus, the Bhagavad Gita, Epicurus’ Letters to Menoeceus, and the story of “The Priest Walchelin and the Hellequin’s Hunt” all offer slightly different theories on what happens after death, they all agree that the death of the body is inevitable. However, the texts fail to give explicit instruction on how mortals should best live their life so as to be best situated for existence after death. Identifying how the texts instruct people to live life in a way that’s meaningful despite its temporary

explain just what love is and whom we should or should not love. Even the Bible, commands its believers to love their neighbors, family, friends, and enemies as they love themselves. The Phaedrus, one of Plato's greatest dialogues delves into the love in terms of who would be best for us to love and why. Phaedrus makes mention of a speech by Lysias, whom he strongly admires, that states that one should strive to love a non-lover, someone who does not and will not love you in

When studying and discussing Classical Greece, the topics that first come to mind are likely to be its cultural and economic efflorescence, its range of tyrants, or Greek religion. While it may not be the first matter discussed in Classical studies, love and sexuality were a major factor in the lives of ancient people, just as they are today. Sources from this period can help us gain insight on the role of these factors during this time. These sources include the poetry of Sappho and Plato’s Symposium

Through the figure of the sophist, I aim to explore Plato's critiques of rhetoric by looking at two dialogues in particular, Apology and Gorgias. Using these dialogues as well as references to other of his dialogues including Phaedrus, Protagoras, and Sophist, I will argue that while Plato critiques the role of rhetoric in sophist arguments, he does not present the philosopher as free of rhetoric either, as he himself uses elements derived from the rhetoric he critiques in his arguments. This will

For all the time today’s students spend learning to write well, Plato is skeptical of those who spend their lives crafting words. In the tenth chapter of The Republic, Socrates condemns poets as imitators. In the dialogue that bears his name, Phaedrus wonders whether words in the constructed rhythms of speech or poetry will obscure Truth, the philosopher’s ultimate goal. Speech-writing is just the clever use of rhetorical device, poetry is faulty imitation, and both empty voices can deceive us

Diotima’s speech. Phaedrus is the first to give his speech. He says that Love promotes virtue in people, and gives them courage. Because people want to impress their lovers and avoid shame, they will strive to act honorably and bravely. The power of love is so strong that if there was a city comprised of boys and their lovers, it would be “the best possible system of society, for they would hold back from all that is shameful, and seek honor in each other’s eyes” (10). Phaedrus emphasizes the power

in the middle of being a god and being a human. I don’t know if that even makes sense but it was kind of confusing to me. Looking back I also noticed that the other speaker who had referred to beauty was Phaedrus. However, I felt that Socrates had a more expressive and confusing version to Phaedrus. Socrates described love as something that brings about beauty but however, it is not necessarily beauty. Another thing I understood of Diotima’s explanation of the purpose of love was its purpose to give

In his article “The Shallows”, Nicholas G. Carr explains to his readers how reading & writing came to be, it 's effects on the brain, and what both Plato and Socrates thought about the subjects. According to Carr, writing began in the year 8000 BC, when people would use small clay tokens that were engraved with symbols as a way to keep track of livestock and goods (Carr, The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains). Then during the end of the fourth century BC, the Sumerians and Egyptians

at Douglass’ time resembles the situation in Athens at Plato’s time. There, only 15% of the population were citizens with full rights of participation in the Athenian democracy. While Plato does not address this issue in the Gorgias or the in the Phaedrus, Douglass