Copyright by David Allen Gilbert 2002 The Dissertation Committee for David Allen Gilbert Certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: PLATO’S IDEAL ART OF RHETORIC: AN INTERPRETATION OF PHAEDRUS 270B-272B Committee: _________________________________ Richard A. Cherwitz, Supervisor _________________________________ Ronald W. Greene, Co-Supervisor _________________________________ Barry Brummett _________________________________ Dana L. Cloud _________________________________ Rosa A. Eberly PLATO’S IDEAL ART OF RHETORIC: AN INTERPRETATION OF PHAEDRUS 270B-272B by David Allen Gilbert, B.A., M.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin August 2002 TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................1 Statement of the Study .......................................................................................4 Methodology..................................................................................................... 10 Overview........................................................................................................... 16 CHAPTER 2: COMMUNICATION’S RECEPTION OF PLATO..................... 20 Humanists vs. Progressivists: The Earlier “Culture Wars” ......................... 22 Plato: Conservative or Totalitarian?............................................................... 25 Plato as Intersubjective Ethicist....................................................................... 30 Plato as Globalizing Epistemologist ............................................................... 36 Plato as Purveyor of Values............................................................................. 46 The “Culture Wars” of the 1980s..................................................................... 48 CHAPTER 3: SOCRATES’ SPEECHES IN THE PHAEDRUS.......................... 52 Socrates’ First Speech ....................................................................................... 53 Definition....................................................................................................... 54 Deliberation................................................................................................... 55 Likelihood and Necessity............................................................................. 56 Necessity and Imagery................................................................................. 58 Ananke and Eikos: Interchangeable Concepts.............................................. 60 Socrates’ Great Speech ..................................................................................... 63 The Preamble................................................................................................. 65 The Evidence of Witnesses........................................................................... 66 Indirect Evidence .......................................................................................... 67 The Statement of Facts.................................................................................. 69 Claims to Plausibility ................................................................................... 70 The Doctor vs. The Cook.................................................................................. 70 CHAPTER 4: THE DIMENSIONS OF A NEW ART OF RHETORIC............. 74 The Problem with Eikos................................................................................... 75 A Global and Critical Art................................................................................. 78 An Art of Deception by Degrees ..................................................................... 80 An Art of Distinguishing Contested Terms ................................................... 82 Dialectic: A New Method for Rhetoric .......................................................... 87 The Dialectician and the Butcher .................................................................... 90 The True Object of Rhetoric............................................................................. 94 CHAPTER 5: THE PROLEGOMENA TO A RHETORICAL ART .................. 96 The Prolegomena: Phaedrus 270b-272b......................................................... 97 Soul Types or Soul Parts?................................................................................. 99 iv The Forms and Dialectic ................................................................................ 102 The Simple and the Complex ........................................................................ 106 The Value of Imagining an Impossible Art .................................................. 112 CHAPTER 6: SOUL PARTS AND SPEECH.................................................... 117 Soul Parts In The Great Speech ..................................................................... 119 Soul Parts In Republic Book IV ..................................................................... 129 Soul Parts In Republic Book IX...................................................................... 134 Dialectic And Complexity.............................................................................. 140 CHAPTER 7: SOUL TYPES AND SPEECH .................................................... 144 Soul-Typologies and the Prolegomena......................................................... 145 Soul Types in the Great Speech and in Republic Book VIII........................ 149 Timocrat....................................................................................................... 157 Oligarch ....................................................................................................... 159 Democrat ..................................................................................................... 162 Tyrant........................................................................................................... 168 CHAPTER 8: A POLITICO-EROTIC PSYCHOLOGY.................................... 172 Types of States and Types of Eros................................................................. 174 Eros and Politics in Athens............................................................................ 178 Politics, Eros, and Rhetoric ............................................................................ 184 The Significance of Lysias.............................................................................. 188 CHAPTER 9: CASE STUDIES IN A POLITICO-EROTIC PSYCHOLOGY .. 192 Dramatic Portraiture and the Prolegomena................................................. 192 Politico-Erotic-Rhetorical Types in the Symposium.................................... 195 Phaedrus’ Multi-Colored Soul....................................................................... 205 Medicinal Rhetoric for Phaedrus................................................................... 209 Contemplation and Dialectic ..................................................................... 210 Fame, Encomia and Funeral Oratory........................................................ 211 “Ambrosial Satisfactions” and Myth ........................................................ 214 CHAPTER 10: CONCLUSION......................................................................... 218 Contributions of the Present Study............................................................... 218 Plato and the Sophists .................................................................................... 221 Plato and the “Marginalization” of Rhetoric................................................ 226 Plato and Modernism..................................................................................... 228 Plato and Portraiture...................................................................................... 231 Plato, Episteme, and Critique........................................................................ 233 Plato, the Soul, and the Subject ..................................................................... 237 Plato, Dialectic, and Articulation .................................................................. 242 BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................ 246 VITA .................................................................................................................... 264 v CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION Friedrich Schleiermacher, the German Platonist who modernized Plato studies in the 19th century, dismissed the Phaedrus—a dialogue of no small importance for the older Neo-Platonists—as an immature work to be read first, a mere preamble to the later works in which the author developed his thought in full. The view that the Phaedrus is Platonic juvenilia, or that Plato intended for it to play an introductory role, was long ago discredited; yet for nearly two centuries after Schleiermacher the dialogue continued to live in the shadow of other dialogues thought to be more vital members of the Platonic corpus. In the last two decades, however, with the publication of several fresh translations and full-length studies, the Phaedrus is making a comeback. The dialogue’s erotic imagery, a scandal to earlier scholarship, is the topic of frank discussion; moreover, in the hands of certain contemporary philosophers and literary critics, the Phaedrus is proving to be a valuable resource for addressing