Truth and Rhetoric in Phaedrus: does Plato deny that rhetoric can ever be used for truth? Can it?
Phaedrus Study Guide
Phaedrus study guide contains a biography of Plato, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.
Socrates meets Phaedrus in Athens. Phaedrus has spent the morning listening to Lysias deliver a speech on love, and now he desires to take a walk outside the city. Since Socrates expresses a keen interest in hearing Lysias's speech, Phaedrus manages to lure him out to the countryside. Phaedrus has a copy of Lysias's speech at hand and will read it to Socrates.
Lysias's speech argues that in a pederastic relationship, a boy should give his favors to an old man who is not in love rather than one who is in love. The lover, Lysias claims, is mad, and as such is given to unhealthy tendencies that cannot benefit the boy. The non-lover, on the other hand, will offer the boy a stable and educational friendship.
Phaedrus believes this speech to be…
Read the full Phaedrus Summary
- Phaedrus Summary
- About Phaedrus
- Character List
- Glossary of Terms
- Major Themes
- Summary and Analysis of Introduction: 227a-230e
- Summary and Analysis of Lysias’s Speech: 230e-234c
- Summary and Analysis of Socrates' Challenge of Lysias: 234d-237b
- Summary and Analysis of Socrates' First Speech: 237b-241d
- Summary and Analysis of Socrates' Recantation: 241d-243e
- Summary and Analysis of Socrates’ Second Speech: 244a-257b
- Summary and Analysis of Transition to Discussion of Rhetoric: 257b-259d
- Summary and Analysis of Discussion of Rhetoric, Part I: 259e-266c
- Summary and Analysis of Discussion of Rhetoric, Part II: 266c-274b
- Summary and Analysis of Discussion of Writing: 274b-277a
- Summary and Analysis of Conclusion: 277a-279c
- The Technology of Writing
- Related Links on Phaedrus
- Suggested Essay Questions
- Test Yourself! - Quiz 1
- Test Yourself! - Quiz 2
- Test Yourself! - Quiz 3
- Test Yourself! - Quiz 4
- Author of ClassicNote and Sources
Phaedrus Essays and Related Content
- Phaedrus: Major Themes
- Phaedrus: Questions
- Phaedrus: Purchase the Novel and Related Material
- Plato: Biography
is there any relationship to the natural wild in phaedrus that causes Socrates to act "mad" and the natural wild in A Midsummer Night's Dream that causes the lovers to act "mad" in the Shakespeare play? Is this idea of madness in nature a recurring theme throughout history?
