When I bought the Symposium, it came in a two pack with Phaedrus as its second. I was glad to find out that this book too revolved around pederasty(sarcasm). Essentially, Phaedrus runs into Socrates walking in the country after hearing a speech by Lysias on reasons why a boy should only lend his favors to a lover (older man) who is not in love with him. The text is lighthearted and has many jokes as Socrates then makes a better speech which agrees with Lysias impressing Phaedrus, but eventually reveals he believed Lysias’ speech to be pretty lame and he didn’t agree with his own. The book finishes with him giving a rebuttal speech and then he focuses on the art of rhetoric and the dangers and pitfalls that are in it. My favorite quote is in regard to (ironically) writing:
“Socrates: In which case, if a man thinks he is handing down a science in writing, or if the recipient in turn thinks something clear and certain will emerge from what is written then he would be full of foolishness, and truly ignorant of Ammon’s prophecy, if he thought that written words were anything more than a reminder to one who knows of the things the writing is about. Phaedrus: Absolutely right.
Socrates: Yes, Phaedrus, because writing has this strange property, I take it, which makes it really very like painting. The things painting produces stand there as if they were alive, but ask them a question, and there’s a deathly silence. It’s the same with writing. You might think the words spoke with some intelligence; but if you want to know more, and ask them any question about what they say, all they can do is signify the same one thing, over and over again. Once it is written any piece of work can be wheeled around all over the place, alike to those who know about it and then, in precisely the same form, to those for whom it is completely irrelevant. It has no way of speaking to those it should speak to, and not speaking to those it should not speak to. And if it gets into difficulties, and it unfairly criticized, it always needs its father to stand up for it. It cannot, of its own accord, defend itself or stand up for itself.”
Overall, this was a decent read, but I would need more practice to really pull out a lot of meaning from these types of text.
Plato