Plato's Dialogues #3

The Phaedrus of Plato

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Trajectory presents classics of world literature with 21st century features! Our original-text editions include the following visual enhancements to foster a deeper understanding of the work: Word Clouds at the start of each chapter highlight important words. Word, sentence, paragraph counts, and reading time help readers and teachers determine chapter complexity. Co-occurrence graphs depict character-to-character interactions as well character to place interactions. Sentiment indexes identify positive and negative trends in mood within each chapter. Frequency graphs help display the impact this book has had on popular culture since its original date of publication. Use Trajectory analytics to deepen comprehension, to provide a focus for discussions and writing assignments, and to engage new readers with some of the greatest stories ever told.

"Phaedrus", by Plato, is a discussion between Socrates, and Phaedrus as Socrates is in prison awaiting execution.

203 pages, paper

First published January 1,-0370

Places
athens

This edition

Format
203 pages, paper
Published
January 1, 1968 by Ayer Co Pub
ISBN
9780405048661
ASIN
0405048661
Language
English
Characters More characters
  • Socrates (philosopher)

    Socrates (philosopher)

    A classical Greek Athenian philosopher. Credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy, he is an enigmatic figure known chiefly through the accounts of later classical writers, especially the writings of his students Plato and Xenophon and the play...

About the author

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Plato (Greek: Πλάτων), born Aristocles (c. 427 – 348 BC), was an ancient Greek philosopher of the Classical period who is considered a foundational thinker in Western philosophy and an innovator of the written dialogue and dialectic forms. He raised problems for what became all the major areas of both theoretical philosophy and practical philosophy, and was the founder of the Platonic Academy, a philosophical school in Athens where Plato taught the doctrines that would later become known as Platonism.
Plato's most famous contribution is the theory of forms (or ideas), which has been interpreted as advancing a solution to what is now known as the problem of universals. He was decisively influenced by the pre-Socratic thinkers Pythagoras, Heraclitus, and Parmenides, although much of what is known about them is derived from Plato himself.
Along with his teacher Socrates, and Aristotle, his student, Plato is a central figure in the history of philosophy. Plato's entire body of work is believed to have survived intact for over 2,400 years—unlike that of nearly all of his contemporaries. Although their popularity has fluctuated, they have consistently been read and studied through the ages. Through Neoplatonism, he also greatly influenced both Christian and Islamic philosophy. In modern times, Alfred North Whitehead famously said: "the safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato."

Community Reviews

Rating(3.9 / 5.0, 99 votes)
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99 reviews All reviews
April 25,2025
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I got tired of Lysias/Phaedrus’s know it all attitude about love and eros real quick and found Socrates arguments here fairly weak. If you are interested in ancient Greek attitudes on friendship, lovership and everything in between, then this is your jam, otherwise this is a long Plato read than can be skipped with little loss imo.
April 25,2025
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A very interesting read. With the Symposium, this book is one of Plato's most important books on love. His exploration of the relationship between love and beauty is very interesting.

His treatment of love in a homoerotic relationship (specifically between adult men and boys of between approximately 13 and 18) in both the Symposium and the Phaedrus is sometimes placed center screen, as if Plato was approving of it, when it is only a culturally accepted practice that is used by Plato as a way of talking about love (and, in fact, of pointing away from sensuality towards training in philosophy). Some people try to make a great deal of Plato's treatment of homoerotic love, as if this is what the book is about. This is to misread Plato. For others, his treatment of this subject may keep them from reading this book, but, it is worth noting that though homoerotic relationships between boys and men were often accepted in Ancient Greek culture, Socrates and Plato are actually to be read as dissenting voices. In fact, as the translator and editor of this volume notes, Socrates and Plato would probably have argued that homoerotic behaviour was against the very nature of love, as the purpose of love was reproduction. Physical erotic love was for reproduction (thus between a man and a woman), and so was mental or spiritual love. But mental or spiritual love was for the reproduction of lovers of the divine ideas and beauty--the philosophers.

Almost all of Plato's observations, made in the context of homoerotic love between men and boys, can be removed from that context and placed within the context of any human relationship.
April 25,2025
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وقتی چشمانش به چشمان معشوق می‌افتد٫ لرزش بدنش به گرمایی سوزاننده تبدیل می‌شود. بخشی از روح که محل رشد بال‌هاست اما در طول زندگی زمینی خشک و چروکیده شده٫ شروع به ذوب شدن می‌کند و دوباره بال‌های کوچکی از آن جوانه می‌زند:
«همانند کودکی که دندان‌هایش تازه جوانه زده و لثه‌هایش می‌خارد و درد می‌گیرد، وقتی بال‌ها جوانه می‌زنند روح متورم می‌شود، درد می‌گیرد و می‌سوزد.»
April 25,2025
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I have heard a tradition of the ancients, whether true or not they only know; although if we found the truth ourselves, do you think that we should care much about the opinions of men?

Delightful rumination on the contrast of rhetoric and philosophy, on the written against the spoken and the madness which is love. I read this as grist for a Derrida project which failed to appear on command. Other tools require being readied.
April 25,2025
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Sokrates kadar büyük bir adamı ancak Platon kadar büyük bir adam ve büyük bir yazar anlatabilirdi... İç içe geçmiş gölgeler gibi, hangisinin daha büyük olduğunu asla bilemeyeceğiz...
April 25,2025
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"at this point, then, his whole soul seethes and pounds––in fact, the soul of someone who is beginning to grow wings experiences exactly the same sensations that children feel when they are teething, with their teeth just starting to grow, and they feel an itching and a soreness in their gums. so the soul, as it grows its wings, seethes and feels sore and tingles."

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"at the end of their lives, when they leave their bodies, they may not have any wings, but they do have the desire to gain them, and this is no small prize to have gained from the madness of love. for it is a law that those who have already made a start on the skyward journey shall no longer go into the darkness and enter upon the journey downward to the underworld. instead, they live a life of brightness and happily travel in each other’s company, and sooner or later, thanks to their love, gain their wings together."

read in dialogue with death in venice, got caught on the strange & lovely eroticism of this account of teething soul-wings ? & on the poetic brilliance of a too fleshy, too earthbound love that still carries its lovers upwards ?
April 25,2025
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I love Plato! I think the argument made in Phaedrus is so important—how rhetoric and memory rely on something we believe is more than it is. I think the story of memory is so important because we believe we have this skill and knowledge, but really most of our memory is just reminding not remembering. It makes me want to put more effort into the actual act of recollection. So good!
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