'Philosophy' in Plato's Phaedrus

Authors

  • Christopher Moore The Pennsylvania State University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14195/2183-4105_15_4

Keywords:

Socrates, philosophia, conversation, self-improvement, Charmides, Protagoras

Abstract

The Phaedrus depicts the Platonic Socrates’ most explicit exhortation to ‘philosophy’. The dialogue thereby reveals something of his idea of its nature. Unfortunately, what it reveals has been obscured by two habits in the scholarship: (i) to ignore the remarks Socrates makes about ‘philosophy’ that do not arise in the ‘Palinode’; and (ii) to treat many of those remarks as parodies of Isocrates’ competing definition of the term. I remove these obscurities by addressing all fourteen remarks about ‘philosophy’ and by showing that for none do we have reason to attribute to them Isocratean meaning. We thereby learn that ‘philosophy’ does not refer essentially to contemplation of the forms but to conversation concerned with selfimprovement and the pursuit of truth.

http://dx.doi.org/10.14195/2183-4105_15_4

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Author Biography

Christopher Moore, The Pennsylvania State University

Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Classics

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Published

2015-12-30

How to Cite

Moore, C. (2015). ’Philosophy’ in Plato’s Phaedrus. PLATO JOURNAL, 15, 59-79. https://doi.org/10.14195/2183-4105_15_4

Issue

Vol. 15 (2015): Plato Journal #15

Section

Articles

License

Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows sharing the work with recognition of authorship and initial publication in this journal.