$'375
Jf Pip ENTHUSIASM D V MSS O P D
hau
Plato's famous diaoge, the a, was vrousy vrou sy sbtited in atiquit: "On Beauty, "O Loe, "On te che. It is aso co erned wth the art of etori, o thought and ommunication Dr Peper, noted for the grace and carity of his ste, gies an miating and stimu latig interpretation of the diaogue Leaing the more recondite scar reoccpatio asde, he concetates on the content, bring ig the atua situaton i i the diaogue -
$'375
Jf Pip ENTHUSIASM D V MSS O P D
hau
Plato's famous diaoge, the a, was vrousy vrou sy sbtited in atiquit: "On Beauty, "O Loe, "On te che. It is aso co erned wth the art of etori, o thought and ommunication Dr Peper, noted for the grace and carity of his ste, gies an miating and stimu latig interpretation of the diaogue Leaing the more recondite scar reoccpatio asde, he concetates on the content, bring ig the atua situaton i i the diaogue -
JOSEF
PEPR
ENTHUSASM and DNE MADN O the Pltoic iaogue u Trste from the Ger by Richr a Clara Wit A Hele n Kurt Wl Book
Harcourt, rc & Worl, Inc. New York
© 62 b selVlag KG ngls tanslaton© b aot Bae & Wold In and abe and abe Lmted All ghts esed No pat o ths book may b epode n any o o b any manal means ldng mmeogap ad tape eode thout pmsso n tg om e pubse Fst eto Lba o Congress Catalog Cad Nmbe 6226 Pted e Uted States o Aea Ogally pblshed Gemay de e tle Begeiserung un Gth Wh Aoedgment s made o pesson to ept otaos om akoths taslato o Pt' Ph Cambdge Uesty Pss I some ases the translatos had to make slgt ages ode to onom moe losel Poesso Pepes tetao
The Author ad the Tralators ecate his book to the memory o
F F
�on tes ED
I
The ast of haraters Components in the atmosphere of intelletual thens sophistiated detahment enlight ened tehniues for ling rude sensualty Sophis ry ultiaed ratonalization Hegel Pseudowis dom and false nemporanty Suess as a riterion The mdrnity of Soraes hs onern is man not na ture Mythal tales and myth suh
ysias' speeh on Eros lust without loe Pleasure and loose talk Mistrust of passion napaiy for emotion onterfeited as prudene The fasination with formal skl Mysterious presene of sared tradition
Irony hampers interpretation Sorates' rst speeh un masking by literal aeptane The daimoni sgn The lghning bolt of forthright language
IV Th Krkrda Rvrsal: vcat th asthti ads to lious truth Th pwr o rcatato and rptac Lov amn r m. Th mrnc o t mas o th ds Th masqurad s o 3
v Maia a divi it Madss loss o automou slposssso passio, thusiasm. Forms o dvi mad ss Frst prophtc cstas Dlph Ddoa th Sib Strlit o th histrical pt o viw E thusiasm th word. How ds rvlati tak plac Scod athartc maia. Madss prcndto or purcatio ad hal. Frz potr and spira ti. ss Hldrl Goth B. Who s th pot
VI Tru possssio i ca ol o 's wts Th ourth r eia maia: rotic mo tio atr ad sti th soul Immortalit Acquiri ws Prmat th whol cosmos Fiurativ aua anstat o itllctual hu mlt Parb d th. Th all th sul Yar ad rcollcti Suprml blvd ad su rml trubli baut Baut s t so uch pr orc p Go T rt ur hloshz Frms d dorts Ers. 6
I w ds ths accrd with ur w viw truth Ult at pstis ar stakd. Ral a appart dvr Th prxmty spr a cs rs ad agap ssuaty. s uslsh lv xist 1
VI Th scd part th dalu. hat maks a spch bautul s truth als hav d rhtrc Th rat tachrs d t wrt Prayr r bauty wthi.
NTES
5
Frewrd
f we shoud ask hstorans of phlosophy to nam th our or ve most mportant works of Plato the answrs wll by no means be unanmous hat s natural enough But the Phadrus s arly certan to be the lsts along with the Sympsium the Pla * and the Pha he Phadrus has had a curous fate n the Platonc scholarshp of the past hundred years. According to on hstoran of phlosophy ths alogue was up to very re cently the hotly sputed center of Platonc scholarshp" 1 he edate cause of ths sputenamely the queston of the dalogue's datwll not concern us n the followng pages But th queston tself has been kndled by the content and the form of the work. Moreoer the dspute voles a derece of fr more than a fe years or decade ome crtcs for example cleeracer ad Usener have mantaned that the Pharus s a very early work perhaps the rst book Plato ote n hs youth; whle others say that the dalogue s obouly te product o age tt te er mt e bee t when h wrote tafte hang already tten th * I pee to use te Gee name nstead o te moe ama but ms eadng Republic
oiei and the Symposium Kurt Hildebrandt tate: Had it authenticy no been too ecrely etablihed by adition it would have been eay to prove it inauthen ticity by the mhod of hitorical critcim in line with the mood of our upercritical age" In point of fact the method of htorical criticim have by now farly well proved that the Phaedrus i actually the work of Plato' maturity written during that great ecade to which the Symposium, the Potei, and the Phedo alo belong. I merely mention all thi ut do not mean to go into the matter any futher Let u be grateful for the teti monial to the dialogue' hitorical authenticity and for its ttribution to the year of Plato' highet chievement But now let u trn or attenton ecluively to the conent of the Phaedrus let u eane what it ay To be ure a I have tated the very peculiarity of what it say ha led to uch contradctory ating Even i antiquity coentator were trouled by the iction and tructure of the Phaedrus We know that Hermeia the eandrian Neoplatonit who wrote a commentary on the dialogue felt called upon to defend Plato agat a variety of charge: iaturty litic ecess cruenes of armetaton an o on.3 Moeover it eem at irt glance trange not to ay alarming that such a variety of term has been ued in the attempt to dene the content of the Phaedrus er all it really hould eem poible to ay what the dalogue i all about. The variou ancient ub title Beauty, Loe, the Sou- fact be euced to a coon denominator Not o the statement of the theme hich have been curent ince chleiemacher' day that i nce the beging of the nineeenth
century chleermacher hmself held that the real sube of the Phdrus s the art of untrammeled thnkng and of creatve comcaton or dales 4 usemhl ke wse translator of Plato and an portat hstoan of hosophy, declared abou 8: namness s he un ont." In 88 the phlosopher Paul Natorp staed tse enttled Plao's Phaedrus he unfyng de s ha of comunty" Wlamowtz, n hs uental book on Platos lfe and work whch was publshed ed tely afer the Fs Wold War, devoed lengthy chpe o he haerus n whc e eme s dened n enrely deen erms he ood duced by nae," he wte gave Plao he ength n happy moment to s up eveyhng n s dalogue herefoe I call ths cape, wc eas of e Phaedrus, felcous s er day ds ecey eope scol o aug hs ; know how t s No ae s s e wy I see e poe whose soul ng o eneae by empahy have aved e mos song ntepreaon o e aoes eme o as Te Phaerus e ewes eoy uns, may we e veneaed s e oy Scpues o e oundaon o e ec. hs s pu fo by u deband he eman edto o Phdrus.8
ese vegen epetaons may make us cone ce eoe we us n wth our own analyss of e haeus d coness ha I myself have estate o neay en yeas On e one and ave epeaed been ascnated y cea passages ths dalogue. eect upon the bes nds of e ages has been etraodnayno s dcult to ee why lderl for eamle , wanted hs own magncent aesetc doctrne to be de
stood as a kd of commentary on the Phadrus. On he other had oe s bwldered by the strange assortment of terpretatos. rom abstract ddactcsm to setmental romantcsm elucdaton has run wld nd the dalogue tself as a lterary work s also a somewhat bag matter at rst and unfortuately at secod glance. It seems to fal nto two major parts whch are qute stnct from each other. Moreover they seem to have nothng whatsoever to o wth each other. hs vry dsproporton" Usener says ths awkward arrangemnt of the dalogue s a sure ndcaton of the author's youth." But f we consder only the rst part, whch s the most mportant t tns out tht t s farly consstent thematcally. On the other hand ths theme s scussed a extremely strage manner here are three speeches. he rst of them s a quotato from begnnng to end. ome nterpreters beleve t s meant as a parody of the suppsedly quoted author. In any case ths rs speech s presented as the statement o a man who s not preset; t s read aloud. he secod speech s delvered by ocrates hmself; but almost as soon as he shes t he says that he dd not mean any of t serously that t s a shamefully false. nd then the thd speech he makes a detaled presetaton of the exact opposte of what he had sad before. o ll the cup of confuson to the rm moreover scholars tell us that noe of these three speches whc take up a good haf of the entre daogue meas anythng at all n terms of content; that they are rather mere samples rhetorcal models and practce peces hen oes t mean nothng we are bound to ask that all three speeches eal wth Eros o whch queston we receve the answer
a hs subect possessed a specal attracveness o th oung men of Athens Nevertheless I beleve t s worth attemptg an nterpretaton of the Phedrus hose sectons of t whose meanngs can be decphered th some certanty reveal anwer llnate so much of our han realty tha we caot bu feel the dalogue s worth our cloe attenton and our thought. Indeed taken as a whole t s always worth whleor perhaps I hould say tha t always behooves usto lsten to Plato. Not only order to lear somethg about Plato although we wsh to do that too; but above all to become aware of certa fundamental apects of exstence whch Plato sees names and res t analyze For we stll tand before these aspects of exst ence perplexty; we tll need the terpretaton. In he ollowg pages I do not clam to have found a soluton. ather we shall sply have to leave a good many engmas as nsoluble as ever. Nor ll we be prmarly concerned th lookng or a sgle uderlyg dea We hall also not look for a formula that mght marze the entre content of the dalogue the manner of a headlne. Nor hall we exane he queston whch has so long ccuped the scholars namely how he Phedrus t to Plato's phlosophcal system"; the poton the system" s the ttle of one chapter n a work enttled Struture nd Chrter of Platos PhedrusU he fact hat there no uch thng as a Plaonc ystem. hose who ruly know Plato have tme and aga had o admt th t mwt te u bk ct rred at no completey lgcal unty hs tecng and belefs conceng he human oul." h qute truebut Wlamowtz contnues the entence n a hghly queto
e nne. Thoe who ove Po hun being, e goe on, uiaey coe round o deghing in hee e condicion which e o iniey eed o e an nd o hi ou" I u confe h uch poin of view ke e o dconcering And I y o iagine how Po, o even Soce, woud hve eced f nyone hd id hi To be e, I ee no oc conecion in wh you e ying, bu I gd h you e o vi peon y, o fu of condicion!" Rhe, ee o e, he vue of Ponic inigh e fo hei hvng been gined fo coe enon of e ubjec e unde dicuion, fo hei hving ien igh ou of he cua dogue ny hough of whehe he eu coodine wih ohe inigh deived fo eewhere Thu, he bence of coheren ye i no ign of ine condicion in Po ind, bu i he ce wih ohe ge hker uch Aioe, Auguine, nd Tho Aquin k of ci epec fo he un hobiiy o he ivere
NTSASM A ND D NE MD NES S
e "cast of charactes Componnts in the atmosphere of intellec ual Athens: sophisticate etachment, enlightene "techniues for ving, crue sensuality ophistry "cultivate rationaliation Hegel) Pseuowisom an false contemporaneity uccess a criterion. he "moernity of ocrates his concern is man, not nature Mthcal tales an myth as such.
Th rt ln of th alou nam th cat of charac r," th dramatis personae mut not merely lanc a th rt lne and pa on, for Plato' hat to pea hrouh th l pronalte of the parcpant n h aloue ndeed, thee characer themele expre h dea alot more nently than h the and propo on. The rt le contan only two name : Socrate and Phaedr. The Socrat of th aloue mode emly rrec oncilal feature wt, pleaure in mocery, and an aton toward parody, uch a we carcely ncountr other aloue But then w nd the m man rptly pean n mythc ma aut th fate of th han oul. n elated lanuae he prae odnped cap rom oneelf n ctay. th th old hand of hcan he uncoer th mo tmat ecret of Ero
d tn co t con t a prayr. l al, h tr on, a lamowtz 1 ay a an altogtr n Socratc Socrat. ntrlocutor, Pharu, mt ha n an qally iid caratr to th contmporary Athnan. tho of toay wo want to har th orton, whch Plato intn to ar, mt try a far a pol to rcon trct ti idn. cannot tr too trongly th gncanc a Platonic alog mt ha had for th ontmorary rar mly on th a of it lt of par tipant." To or nilty, Plato omtm cam pr oly clo to ng almot naraly drct. That om nt a oon a w attmpt to tranlat Plato way of going aot thingin th ympim ayto h trm of or own tim. t wold a though w or har Alrt Eintin, Ortga y Gat, Brt Brcht, and an octa an imaginar onratonimaginary n yt n tl fahion xtrmly ral." Bt, thn, who i Phadr? i on of t larnr Socrat ntorag, on of tho yong Athnan who r nthiatcally an ncrically ot to thir ma tr, t who alo tn to lr y ll th latt na onal fa. Plato tch t yong mn th ndgu irony lay ar thir immatrity, thr tlty, tir xcin Bt hi irony i actionat it tr th not of a grown man contmlatng h own you d it may rally , t m to m, tat Plato wo a w now rtntly lnt aot hlf t alogu) may fac ha portray himlf in th yong Athnian. t ay a, w woul proaly graing only half of Plao ntion if w imply charactrzd Phadr a
n crcal culur ltur 2 r rn f call nthuam and upercal educan wh ealy fall c to any kd f pecoune Of cure th later char cterzatn true Plat hmlf ay the ame tn u Plat alo tell u mrfr example, that Phaeru de r one of the net of the peece of the ympsm rae f le n mlar fahn Plat dne Apollo d whm the Athenan tk t calln the madman ftr he ecame a fllower of Socrate, y makn hm th rerter of what went n dr the feat n Aathon' hue) n the preent dalou Phaedru Socrate le tr lcuor t he emere from a rup f character wh were equally well known t the rader of Plat' day and me of whm were tnctly unary Phaedu mut hae poed h noe deep nt that atmophere pced y o many and arou eence he rt le of the da loue read a fllow rates here do you come from, Phaeru my frend, and where ar y gn er 'e een th ya, Socrate, the on of ephalu, and m o for walk oude the wall, after a long mornng ttn there On the ntructn of or commn frend Acenu tak my wal on th open rad h tell m that mre ngoratng tha waln n the clonnad orats Ye, h' rht ayn o ut ya, tak t, town haers Y, tay th Epcra, n that hue whr Morychu d t , cl t th tmpl of Olympan Zeu e may e cned to reard t a a mere troducton to real uect matter f the daloue, and a rather lam d oral trodcton at that n actuaty t al ady par nd parcl of the real uect ut th ecme
apparent only if we know the personalities concealed be hind those names which are dropped so carelessly, wtut fther explanation. The rst of them, ysias, s a Sophistic speechwriter, iterary man of great technical ability, master of a stguished prose style. His persuasiveness when he is lyin is especially arable.4 Phaedrus in a moment wl cal h the ablest writer of our day." Moreover, he i the scion of a respected conservative family; but this yoger eneration" as broken w ts fathers in revolutionary ashion. The upheavals of the last years of the Peloponesian Warwhich came close to being a Thirty Years' Warare destroying the old order of things. When the war ends, Lysias s expropriated, his brother executed, and e himself goes into exile. The irst speech he writes is an indictment of his brother's murderer. Here, then, is a biography which miht very well have been cast in a heroic" mode At the beginning of the great dialogue on the State, Socrates inds Lysias' father, Cephalus, sitting in the inner court of his home, wearig a garland, for he had been sacriicing. Socrates asks im what seems to him to have been the greatest blessing of his ife and the old man begins to tell about his cares he wonders whether the trditional stories of reward and punishment after death ma no be true after all and so he is trying to dra u his reong ih hmsef and to restore any unju aqured oods (0 dand so on. Anoher secor of this enlghtened socie is mad up of the devotees of the bettr technique for livng ult, the heath adsts and subcribers to he mod a o
ature movement which, it must be said, is boh anxously ollowed and at the same tme sneered at by ths very society. Typcal examples of these highly fashonable healh reformers are Acumenus and hs son Eryxmachus, who cdenay s Phaedus' partcular frend, or more precisely, hs lover hs is the same Eryxmachus ho a the begnnng of the Symposim is barely sopped from eliverng a techncal medcal speech on the evl eecs f drunenness Epicraes, th whom ysias is staying, is characterized y Arsophanes as a rhetorcan and demagogue e s, it seems, a rather doubtful customer who is somehat cavaler about the dstinction between Mne and hne Ultimately he wll be condemned to death for treason and ribery. 5 As for Morychus, I shall merely quote the terse noe gven in PaulyWssowa ragedan, undoubtedly of the owest ran, whose princpal terests were culnary pleasues. Thus, in the rst lnes of the dalogue, Plato evoes the atmosphere in which these young Athenian intellectuals ive. Thers s a world of sophsicated reverence and de tachment, f enlghtened health doctrines and smultaneous epraty And in the mdst f these posonous fumes, strangely untouched but gravely imperled, e nd Phae dus Comng straght from such company, he mees oc ates, who at once ass him what his frends had taled about Though he aready can surmse : o doubt ysas gave the company a feast of eloquence, served up hs lates,
just completed show pieces"
It tns out that ths guess is correct Moreover, ths time, Phaedrus sys, the subect as somethng hch ese cially conces ocraes he topc is aprrae fo
yo ears Socrates" For Lysias' new terary work is logo oiko a speech about loe The ablest writer o our day" Phaedrus says has brought to light somethg icredibly subtle etirely ew ad origial o this ageold ad ehaustible theme As amost all the Patoic a loges the situaio the Phad is rom the sta goeed by the ethusiasm o the youger geeratio o Sopstry. Perhaps we should erm it asciatio ad e chatmet rather tha ethusiasm Pato himsel the dialogue Proagoa ( ) ha depicted what must e ma the classical eample o this attitude He describes detail how Hippocrates who is very youg comes nig og beore dawn to Socrates ad wakes m Socrates aiously asks whether ayhig ad has happeed. Whereupo Hippocrates thks no ther eplaaion s needed tha the aoucemet that Protagoras has arried. He sists hat Socrates must ioduce him to the amous Sophist at oce The yog ma is eady to sacriice a his moey ad i ecessa his rieds moey also. Phaedrus is the same type as Hippocrates I he cou oly say by hea all that this man has said it would mean more to him tha cog to a ore" he declae d o course boe all say it t wa Lysias said i Socrates preteds o be all agog at his. He isists a 22 7 Phaedrus tell him what Lysias said I wo't leae you ee i you eted your walk as ar s Megara" By emp g hm th the prose o hearn such seeches he con inues Phaedrus could lead all roud Attica the way hgry goat is led by holg gree leaves beore it. he Phaedrus becomes coy Socates grows impatien. 22 He chas Phaedrs by oce moe describig the boy's b mused state: Phaedrs ust ha een stening to Lysia
eec beg reeated a og nti e grew wea nd went or a wa, recin te eec to ie Upon y word, I elieve he had leat the hole peec by eart" ) And ten, to his great pleasure, out i te cotry e cae on e an who a a pasion o listening to scourse" e et, tat is, soeone to har i enied entuias And e nsist ta Paedru drop hi petended elctance ad ote the peec, ice e obviousl can carcel wait to do so A oon a Paeu begins, Socrate terrupt h 2 aai Sow e what it i tat ou ave i ou let hand de our cloa; or I ie at it i te actual di coure And e isit tat Paedrus ead it alod This enthiam o Atenia oth o Sophi a oetime ee to u ligtl iprobable Bu e ut ealie tat it wa a act we wi to dertand not onl lato tone, but alo i conce, and te genc o that once We eall ould dic Sopitr oeha greate etai; but o coe tat i not posible i thi conte oweve, we all erit oureles tee bie ea Fit The grea Sopit were not ut a grou e a intellectal aleuin wo proclaed abe dea Rate, the epeented a level o tellectua ic ad reaced te ltimate degree o peectio oible at the time Te itoian are igt i peai e a onder o oal edcatio n te Wet Wee aege calls the Sopist e rt huanists eel a a te Sopt ebod cutiated ationaliaion eneral 8 I e look or conteporar anaoie to te phenomeno o Sopistr we wod have to earc aon e ost advanced representative o hau lau
Send: t is ineent in te ntue f Spisty th is ut t pin it dwn Ave , te destutive eement in it is d t egnize A is ife Pt ws nstnty mking new ets t d s In digue written very te n ife, entited The Sophist e went k t te vey e ginnings t sk: Just wt is Spist As is we knwn, s iint mn s Aristpnes egded Stes s Spist In te wrds, Stes ws nfunded wth te exteme ntitesis t is nture Wt tis mens is tt Aristpnes did nt undestnd the Sphists is tte, fr his prt, repetedy deined Sphisty s pseudo wsdm Jn Wid, te distinguished Amein intepeter f Plt, sys Te Sphist seems just ike phisper He tks just ike phisper In ft we my sy tt he ppers even me like phisphe thn the pis opher himsef 9 Tird: Sphisty is phenmenn whih, s Hege sys, reurs in ges, 10 nd wih we must theefre e prepred t enunter every eph t is inheent in the nture f Spistry t expund te vntgde ides f ny given time It wys presumes t e extly wt is neessy nd ret nw; t e the timey nd mden thing Sphistry nd tpility re rdinte nepts in higy speii sense f urse tis des nt men tht vntgdism is wys nd neessriy Shisti; ut in tis rem we must nstnty e peped f ms uerde Spisty is pseudntempneityut te sm is diut t unmsk f we nsider refuy wht Pt sid ut the S ists nd hw he repesented them, we wi reize tht e evienty pereived exty wt ws dngeus ut tem f al ges, nd tt e identied tt dngeus
lement re are a numer of pont n te teacn of te Sop c are jut a pertnent today a ty were n fourtcentury Aten. or example: after Socr t, accompaned y youn ppocrate, a made wy to Protaora eary n te mornn, e a te celerated ae at one can earn from m e aner run : You can earn from me o to mae your ay uccefuy trou fe, a a prate peron and ao a a ctzn Suc ompetence n fe condered to e aret, rtue ro agoras, 8 e) u, te teacn of Protaora, te meaure of man equated t capacty to acee ucce: rtne mean ucce But t Soptc con cepton of rtne o ery remote from toe e of man n c utty made te tandard for eery uman cton and, to expre t e totataran term, e ency repreent te upreme aue n ot cae, e t oted, at noed not merey te factua and prac tcal apect of fe, ut a aluejudment and proram: Eerytn tat ere ucce ood eerytn tat nder t ad But at der ucc Poopcal heoria, for exampe, tat to ay, tat mode of approac te ord c am oey or cey at one ne tn: to nd out te nature of reaty. Poopcal heoria am at trut nd notn ee cero and Seneca tranated te ord theoia nto atn and te ord te oe to render t a ontempatio e need ony ay te ord to reaze o contemporary te Soptc te But t not ony contempatonte vita ontempativ tat der te ma o a made prcpa oa to ecome mater and owner of nature to ue De arte' prae 11 . ao e ndered y te ont moton c may mae foret te practca am o
ie; ioet eotio i the face of death, fo exape fom expeiec the spehma; or, ao, te ioen emotio of loe Te alteaties ae aoidance of existetial eotios by pacticin a atioal ife patten, b metodical exclio of eerytin ta anot be planne (wic cldes bot tilitaian social plani ad vidal poras fo a ccessfl life). stead of eu e ne upeaal, artiicial tcats ad exciteets an be admiisteed caefl doses Ad te eason ta Sopism cones to ae pertence, acoss e span aes, is a te eoies and porams o Sopis pe ese alteas It is pecisely is sort of in a s te eel t speec b Lysias, a copy o wic Paedrs is carn unde is loa n abot wic s s ensiastic I s a speec abo loe, Eos Paes sms p its conten 22 7 a sle senence: Lysias mantans andsoe bo c 7 shold ie te favo o nonlos ae tan to loe Terein, Paeds ads, lies sbet e cleeess ist f tis spec. Now we ma s: s ta ot s nonsense, simply an abita cncei, a sillinss vened eely f sa bein outre? B mat s o s simple Watee dtails o n s la a e spec propses as nomati stnda se an njymn without lov.12 A we ead alo i te aoe, o e explaation is ered The statement is eel made and ten, s i seems comletel ootten o a wile Paeds sees t b mpessed solel b e formal eleanc of t lana and stcte te spec b e einement e ue o niteis d e enors stylisti taln
Lysias has dsplayed The style seems o have claimed all his aenion and airaion. The conen is scarcely egarded Probably a similar reacion may ofen be observed the younger generaion of any age. The youg wa enthusiasic over the mos destucive, mos shocking, mos mmoral heoriesand upon closer examinaion i s ou ha they are aos enirely indieren o he conen of such saemens They are fascinaed by he unusual, y the elegance and excessiveness of presenaion Socraes oes no immediaely his aenion o he 22 7 conen of he speech, eiher His response is purely ronc cal he commens tha if favor were hus graned o a poor man raher han a rich one, or an old man raher han a young one, hen a leas i would bene him, Socraes. All this is mere gay, sociable chaer, a long way from serious discourse everheless, as a wrer Plao does no go in for mere padding While the wo, Socraes and Phaeus, saer aay from he ciy, alking alog he brook Ilissus and nally wadng barefoo in is waers, somehng denie happens" The pair sho us more plainly he kind of people hey are And Socraes shows us a wholly ne side of himself He sands before a all plane ree and nds i all lovely: he fragrance, he genle breeze, he waer, the grass u he speaks of i as hough he were seeng all his 2 30 or he rs ime You srange man, Phaedrus says, you c alk like a foregner being sho he counry by a guide Don' you ever se foo ouside he walls of he ciy? ereup oes mkes ep w es me n ro a sidelgh on his own personaliy i sums up a hole epoch of nellecual hisory Trees and open coun y, he sys, won' ech me anhng, wheeas men
te tow do" he philosophers whom we c he preSocrics quired ino he sructure of the cosmos hs ew genertion, to which boh the Sophists nd ocrtes elong, do ot just give a new answer (to the old question) ; they ask dierent quesions t prrily terests them is no longer nre, the cosmos, but man Phedrus sks nother question, in quite incidentlly The two pss by spot which remnds Phedrus of the traditionl story of the rpe of the ymph reihyi by Bores, nd he sks whether it hppened here, by the 2 Ilissus But pry tell me, Socrtes, do you believe tht c story to be true" o this ocrtes replies n somewht enigmtic wy If I disbelieved this story, s the me of science do, I would ot be t loss; I would tlk awy cleverly nd explin tht the norh nd blew the girl from a high cli nd people then sid She hs been seized by Bores ht sort of erprettion is lwys possible in a given cse But then wht bout Centurs nd Chimers, orgons n Pegsuses bviously, not ll such stories could be ex plined in the sme mnner yone who ttemped to d so would hve to hve gret del of te t his dispos Consequently, Socrtes goes on, I don't bother bout uc things; I believe in them s custom demnds ht relly concerns me is the question of who I myself m: I cn't as yet know myself,' s the inscription at Delphi enjoins his reply hs been en to represen Socrs iew of he myhs, nd hs been inerpreted s foows: He is dieren o he mhs; wht ineress him is he ehicl subject's rionl knowledge of self; he respects supeationl nformtion of myhic origin, but feels he hs no te to dwell on it
The matter is, as have said, rather complicated and annot be discussed detail here. But think the follong point is the decisive one There are mythic tales, and there is Myth as such there are a variety of traditions, and there is Tradition. Myth and Tradition as such ear n the heart of existence they ear on man's salvation. Wherever these concepts crop up in the Platonic ritings as, for example, the narratives of the origin of the verse, of the primal state and fall of man, of judgment after deathocrates clearly and strongly proclaims hi unconditional veneration O such occasions ocrates does not talk aout havg no time for Myth he goes to con siderale lengths to delve into its meaning
sias speec o Eos lust without love Pleasure an loose talk Mistrust of passion Incapacity for emotio couterfeite as pru ce e fascinatio wit ormal skill Mysterious presece of acre traitio.
Except for a sgle reference, so far nothing has been said of the subject of the alogue love But we have been made cognizant of the situation i which the scourse will take lace One of the chef elements of that situation is the pervasive postwar mod" of detachment It is a rather nobbstic aude and is characterzed by a lack of ties r allegances of any sort From this standpoint, a respect or tradition dicates a lack of real uality the man of ue telligence tracks down defects" 1 he scarcely dis mulated sensuality is combined with a scientc iterest i techniques for living All this is articulated and made ac ceptable by means of the verbal mgc of Sophistry Ad the class of youg itellectuals is fascinated, bewiched, hypnotized by it all On the other hnd, they are oddly nnocent and immune to the really desructive aspects of such deahment eause the enhusasm s roused me by form han by conent, moe by manner han y maer One of hese boys, Phaedrushe, to, smultaneously fasci ated and mue, tll ecstatic over Lysias' speech n
ove wic e as just eardmeets Socrates, as we ave een. And Socrates is amost oensivey sober, is an out poken antiSophist. But at the same time he is passionatey stirred by the same uestions that excite the youger generation Herein Socrates does not sho the stuy co servatism of the usual Athenan antiSophists He s us as modern" as the Sophts copletely accet h uestions they raise; h shar e xcluiv intre an His dierences wth the conce not the usons ut the answers This, then, the man wth ho Phaeus is aking. The two settle down uder a plane tree y 30 the Issus Proceed," Socrates says. hereupon Paedrus e takes out the roll of manuscript. Here you are then And he reads Lysias' speech If we were approaching thi dialogue of Platos fro a cholarly oint of vie we woud e rought u short onc more at this point. A speech by Lysias? e we really to elieve that Pato uote word for word any pages another writer? Some Pato scholars aong them Wilamo witz, Friednder, Hidebrandt answer this uestion a ativey Ad ter arguments are worth a hearing First the speech exacty correspond to Lysia' tye a we have met it elsewhere Second It would e impossibl for Plato aritrariy to attribute to th famous orator [Lysias] a peech which he then dissects" 2 Thrd to introduce i foreign eement into the diaogue which acts ke th east in the dough" is an iensely clever stylistic devce ther terpreters, for exmpe Hackforth and Westock, matan that of course Pato was enoug of a iter to invent a seech precisey in the style of Lysias, that, indeed, he s prone to do so, as the speeches of Aristophane and Agathon in the Symposum deostrate ach a is
s o dvdual and stakable dcton, do the subtlest nuancand no on has ever come forth th the absurd idea tat at most a quarter of te osium s Plato's own work. Moreover, Hackforth pons ut, Plato s ot at all conceed th ysias as a ddual he is terested, rather, th tir school. sias or someon else"the phrase is actually rpat ral ties th Pdr.) c agai I entio is conoversy ol o o i t seems to m there is o ay of sett t a conclusiv argument. tha rally nterests us hr is Platos bous opnio tha such a speech is possible, form an above all contet; possibl for an probably characterstic of a man hom such brght youg me as Phaedrus ega as the mos poant iter of the tes. o hat of the speech tself? Rght at th begng of his conversaion th Socrates, Phaeus gave a brief sketch of it: he discussion . . concerned love ysias, you must kno, as described how a handsome boy as tempted, but o by a lover; that's the clever pa of it; h maitains that surrender sould be to one ho is not in lov at than to one who is" K ildebrandt says his speech is profoudly abous, and one is temped to see it as uequivocally as" But, he contues, that cannot be hat is meant, for it ere th meaning of the whole dialogue would be distorted." The matter is really exceedingly complicaed But beore e aem anayze e nen o e see, ll be orh our ile to glane once more at is fomal strucur. ysias is, as w have said, a writer of speeces; h composes speeches hich ar delivered by someon
else It is therefore prt of his trde to identify with he mind of nother mn d to put ords to tht mn's mouth. In o present cse the other mn is someone who is suing for the fvor of hndsome boy he speech is therefore cotship speech n the other hnd, it is lso iction"; it is n a-if courtship speech. Moreover, it is a rgment; it begins t poit fer the essence of the speech hs lredy been stted his essence, which would be the centrl feture o a rel couship, is assumed; it is pssed over in silence, but in such a mnner tht no s understnding is possible You know how I m situted, nd I hve told you tht I think it to our dvntge tht this should hppen ith these words, which sod rther like a concluding sentence, the speech begs. hus the literry rtistry, the stylistic skill, is linked with somehing altogether dierent ht ppers to be aristocrtic dis cretion actully serves to concel something altogether corse. Friedlnder clls it the prtnership of physicl tiction nd gbble 6 Here speks a mn who desires and dmittedly does not love; nd his speech serves to con cel and to ece the brutish instinctul drive tht is bent only on crude enjoyment, physicl desire and nothg else" 7 n the other hnd, this eloquence also ttempts to justify the lck of rel love, the noninvolvement of the umn person ht is relly so bd, n fct inhumn, about this ttitude is not the crvng or sensul grtic on, but te deliberte, sstemtic seprtion of sensulity from spiritulity, of sex rom love. his seprtion isif we now consider contentthe rel subject of the speech which Pheus reds loud to Soc 23 rtes ow I clim tht I should not be refused wht sk simply becuse I m not yo lover.
here re three things hich re unied hee in te ediu of rully dieenied lnguge he irst is a discreetly cnceled im which, howeve, is fully uder d, is tken comleely for gnted, nd is ressed it imlacble consistency: sensul giction the most drstic mening of the term r s A E ylor uts it Utility in the most sdid sense of the word" 8 he second is n emhic nd exlcit reecion nd devlu on of erotic emoion, of the pao aoi Here paio does not men sson i the sense of excessive vehemence; rther, it mens only tht one is seized by suerior force, t one is crried y by soething Moreover, the hole self is crried y; the force is n overhelng one, not merely n isolted stiulus; rther, one is f ected as a hysicl nd siritul being ysis' rgument licitly reects this ssive sect of love, ssive i the sense of sething hening to the self hird the l ost technicl obectivty of mere sensul grtiiction (a omn is tken s a lss of ter is dunk to quench thirst is resented as something ehiclly vluble, s prudence, good sense, vrtue ysis ctully uses the 2 3 2 ord arte in contrdstinction to (not s lover, 4 ut by virtue Aginst this the erotic emoion pers to be something ntithetic to orderliness, to be folly nd irrionlity, not to sy sickness ith ht sounds like morl indignion ysis bids us only o look t 2 3 the lovers"; they themselves kno they re sic nd � dit it Even in the iblicl Song of Songs ( ; 8 ) n ne of e ey few sses w e wd a occurs t ll in the in Vuge, the rse is a ango, I m sick wih love" The Sophiss, then, ith their ides on proer livig
technique, delore nd reudite such excess And they do so, be it noed, not i the nme of ny scetic ide nd ethicl cntrol of the will, but i the nme of being wthout illusions. ut such relism is ctully nothing but ck of ccity for devtion it is egocentric fer tht plesure my be lost it is siritul overy nd derivtion. Lysis' seech, th its vst rtus of words, rhetoric, nd rgumention, ttemts to reresent desire without love, crvng for lesure without the cpcity for emotion, s something quite menngful nd desirble. We ust relize ths th utter clrity otherwise we shl not understnd the olr oosite which Plto then conjures up or us Tht oposite s the ortrit of sol which receives to ts depths the eotion roused by sensuous beuty, nd sultneously renoces physic grtiiction o tht euty. We re tempted to sy tht this sme concep tion is to be fod the works of Pul Cludel. ut that woud ceiny be nticpting. We ust once more look t the speech which Phaedrus as red loud to Scrtes der the noondy shde of the plne tree by the Ilissus The three fctors we hve menoned (the tcit but unequivocl ai o sensul plesure the deprection of pass; the elevtion of inccity or eotion nd devotion to rudence, good sense, tue) constitute the sustiing ide, the true content of the speech. But the seecker s highly cultivated, nd e therefore, while expsiting these bsic ides, cnnot elp troducg good del tht s true nd correct, or at lest signiicnt nd highly suggestive. is tent n ths direction mkes the lne of rgent so much the rder to see through. For exmple, the ortor is absouey right when he sys tht the excess inherent every
assionate eotion aes a eson inept in dealing wit te practical aairs of life. Tose appenings wic cannot be predicted, wic pierce te soul, wic coe as ovewelig, transforing eotional upeavals, can in oto a be tted to te orderly syste of a rationl onduct of lfe. Yet on te oter and an by virte of is ae s deed alled pon to conduct is life rationally. ee s an everasting roble involved erea roble ot o ethical teor and for practical conduct The Stoic ide of a life witout passion ever and again coends itself b its plausibility. Nevertheless it us perorce lead to a peraps respectabe ut at botto unnatural stasis. It is te nae of an as a physical and spiritual eg that e be open to sattering eotion susceptible to eing carried away. Te passin anima cannot be si enced witout leading to inuanity either te inuanity of rigid rationalty o of brutish sensualityboth of wich ave in comon te qualities of being unro antic," obective, and safe fro eotion" Real an is a being by nature given to sattering eotion. A good deed is bette for aving been cotted with passion. ourse it is also true tat a bad deed coitted wit passion is all te worse 9 O corse Lysias is stating a truth, though a trivial one, saying that only the lover nows ealosy, whereas te nonloe is fre of tat particular folly. How indeed could jealousy eist in te real of ercenar love" Te ollog arguent deserves ore consideration e aso ve hen he an ahe ate land yet tis love is not passion, not sattering erotic eotion not frenzy Here e ae approaching atters hic are ard to pt into words we can only touch on
te st, we shuld cnsider the rearable fact that anguage des nt use the wrd lver" fr parents lving the chilen, nr fr chilen lving the parents, nr r brthers and sisters lving ne anther, nr fr thse lined in friendship d when the ystics see an analgy fr the lve f Gd, they nd their cparisn in ertic ve which is indled by physical beauty we ust read once re rancis de Sales's explanatin fr his calling his faus b nt Tait de a diectio de Dieu, but ait de ' amou de Dieu10 There are, then, a variety f clever, thughtprving, and dicult arguents that Lysias, r whever ay be cncealed behind his nae, winds lie garlands arund the undaentally slender scalding f his real thesis After reading the speech, Phaeus exclais agan Ist that extrarnarily ne Hw, urt Hildebrandt ass, can the nble Phaeus" read such a thing withut repugnance T Hildebrandt, this inncent enthusias sees t prve that the speechhwever uch Lysias uld be capable f advcating the cld baseness f eyent withut lvecannt really be eant s crudely as the language suggests Certainly all this is ot eep ing with the character f yg Phaedrus His speech on lve, with which the Symposium begins, cannt be en tined in the sae breath with Lysias' speech The y posium shws us an enthusiastc Phaedrus stirred by the pwer f Ers he des nt sa a wrd at the raticatin f desre r even f the bliss f feeling Instead, his speech cncerns the utterst that can be deanded f an, the utimum potentiae, which the lver alne wuld be ashaed nt t et nly lve akes an capale f vicarius sacrice, indeed, f heric acceptance f dath
obily, love of onor, bravery are te virtues wic guis te loversuc is te style and tone of Paedrus speec in the Symposium. d this sae Phaedus regards Lysias spech on the sae thee of love as extraordinarily ne" We ust, owever, read the sentence 23 4 to te endespecially in pot of language" Paedrus, c 7 tat is, is ipressed particularly by the aner, the diction, te linguistic virtuosity His enthusias is priarily indled by te urely foral eleet he conte does not see to ineest iwic, of course, does not ean tat te thesis ay no tae eect after all, peraps iperceptibly at is appeng ere is, as we ave said, soeting extreely tical e fascating aspect of Sartre, Brect, Ionesco is teir manne content and substance are not only beside e point, but to spea of te is to prove oneself a vulgarian Are te wors of tese en true or false, good or bad, constructive or destructive, sleag, seductivesuc questions are ased only by tose o do not understand great literature Plato, ten, ould undoubtedly ave to be reconed aong suc vulgarians for e banised Hoer, who he ad loved and adied fro is yout on, fro is republic because the eat poet related unorty tings about te gods But it is not enoug for Paedrus to adire te speec all by iself e sees coniration fro a fellow en 23 4 tusiast at do you tin of te speec, ocrates " d c ocraes coplies wit is wis e speec is daimoios, devilisly ine indeed . . I was trilled by it" en ocrates talks this way, we sould of ourse be on ou guard yone who as the sligtest failiarity with te Platonic dialogues knows the cuing ingenuty t ich Socrates deligts in playing te part of being wholly
ae , uery echaed by Sophsc verba magc. s w Apoogy begs wih such a admisso hs accusers, e says, have spoken so persuasvey that they have amost ade hm forget who he was. The strongest satemet of ths sort s probaby to be foud e daogue Mnxnus whch Socrates taks of the speeches whch are customary t patroc ceremoes hoorg those who have died for te coury, ad whch every magabe prase s ashed ot oy upo the dead but aso upo the vg, a of whomsofar as they are Aeasare gored I stad seg to ther words, Meexeus, ad become chated by them, and a of a sudde I mage mysef to hav grow up o a greater ad ober ad er ma tha I was before . Ths coscousess of dgty asts e or tha three days, ad ot unt the four or ft ay o I come to my seses an kow wher I am I the eatm I have bee g the Isads of e Best, suc s the a of o rhetorcans. Therfor we must be o the ae. Socrates has sad hat h was thred. However, e goes o to say that was specay deghted t the sght of Phaedrus ehusasm I took my cue from you, ad therefore oed th 2 ecsasy of my rght worshp compano. Ths soem ad uie uSocratc remark makes Phae s uasy. Come, come! Do you mea to mak a oke f t? does ot wat to be sodged from s ecstatc ood. Te me ty, as oe ed to aother, do you th there s ayoe Greece who coud make ore portat speech o the same subect? T ths Socrates respods by askg a uesto s : Wat you mea by portat? Are yu refe th cotet r th form? D yu mea th k f
a us be judged fro e poin of vie of truth or fase ood or do ou ean the anner Socraes sees no e read o enter ino serious discussion of the subjec n so e ateps o leover he fora aspec hic e eal regards as upoan He goes on to sa a e as no consideed he conent and after al knos no g bou such aters; a ha nterested hi as e reorc the retorc he us dd as poor; te sae ng repeaed hree es ttle inventiveness; peraps sias anted o deonsrae a he could sa e sae hi one and hen aga in a eren a each ie t equa sle Bu haeus refuses o be pu o He consiers is ero's speec agniicen in bot for and conen; sias as not overlooked an iportan aspect of he subjec an no one could possibl ave scussed it better Abruptl the seriousness of te conversation s restored although onl brie Socrates sas th grea iress 35 No" If I ere to ait ou ere right about his I oud be confuted b the ise en and oen of the past the Anciens the paaioi for he spoke dierentl bou love nd no spite of te ga and sociable lightness of tone perhaps e a sa in spite of the alos drows idleness of the talkthere follos a crucial staeent abou the Ancients and his own relationshi to he Phaedru ants to kno exac who Socrates is referring to Who are hese ncients o said anthg better than Lsias 2 35 Socrates' rep is deieratel vague can't tel ou o c 2 and; ut I'm sre I ave eard sometng better rm the fai appho abe or the wise areon or perhap soe prose riter" At an rate he coninues e as othe deas abou the aer nd ceranl sewha beer ones
2 35 e coulnt have ht upon thee hmelf o I uppoe it can onl be that t h been poured into e through ear nto a veel from ome external ource though in tupd fahon I have actuall forgotten ho and ro hom I heard t We mut a ha been aid imagne all th a poken b ocrate th extreme nonchalance a he le undr the plane tree n the noonda heat he i onl half erou and 35 toe in a hghounng uotation from the poet here c i omethng ellng up thn m breat" th mpl high prt a e mght to o a tag from hakepeare hen e happened to be feelng good Neverthele f I ere aked to name a clacal text hich bet exprees he terou nd neverthele unuetonable preence f he great nd acred radton n the mnd of the bet reChrtan thnker I ould probabl chooe th pa sage or hat doe it a hat he knoledge ha come do from the ncent" it echoed i the poet the eel of the mind ha been lled b hearng that to a no out of peronal experence and peronal obervation u from external ource et the ho" and the fro hom" i forgotten
Iron hampers interpretation Socrates' rst speech unmaskin b itera acceptance. Th "daimonic sin. The lihtnin bolt o orthriht anuae
ron adds certa dculties to conversation If e ar dealing it soeone o is fond of speaking in roni quotation arks of pretending to be stupid ile buildng up a poerful arguent of plag te entusiast ile practicg ncisive criticisten e ust e fernall careful e ust keep our ees and ears open lest e ss soe telltale sade of facial expression or ntonation Tis s exactl o e ust conduct ourselves toard lato's Socrates e ust exan is face keenl is being serious no or is e onl akg gae of au and terefore of us as ell It s fairl eas to see roug is exaggerated plauts for Lsias' speec i e proptl ualiies altoug evn tat is n ronica ters But no te conversation beteen Socrates and aedrus continues t Socrates ansering te speec of Lsias b one of is own After all e ad said tat culd ce a deret and etter seec And aedrus nstanl eld i to tis Ver ell I oer a prizea golden statue of ou to e set up in te tele at Delpi, f ou do as ou sa and ake a etter speec on te sa ·
35
3 c
suect no shorter and above all copletel dierent hich shall oe nothing to t Socrates res another dodge of course he did not ea t that a it ould obvousl be ipossble to ake ever etail ne even the poorest ter cannot help but ake soe good points Phaeus agrees n part t ill be all ght for Socrates to retai the basic dea that love is a sickness but everthing else ust be ne and original Socrates now pretends ebarrassent assues stage fright It ill be courting ridicule for an aateur like e to provise on the sae thee as an accoplished riter But haedrus of course s not taken n b this coness deed the hole conversaton has not been serous the hole thg s a gae a rhetorca sportg evet Ever ne i Athens knows this gae t is in these ters think a haedrus isderstands hat s takg place Incidentall this whole interlude is done ith sparkling vacit one pun cog hard upon the next We oud e tepted to speak of the se of Shakespearean coees f t ere not the other a arod Shakespeare prob abl having learned a few tricks in the school of latonc alogue When for exaple Phaedrus sas that he ants to set up a golden statue Socrates reples at once Oh hat a golden bo ou are! hich s o sa ou ta ike soeone left over fro the olden Age oure egendar splicit! We us appreciate such details as the philologists have discovered for s n order to realize the rich references Platos language had for his conteporar readers inall haeus threatens s recactran copanon th siple force We are b ourselves in a lonel place and I a songer and oger tha o please don
!37 a
2 37 2
ae e use force o open o lips" And hen he adds a ore convincing arguen I have soehing o sa hich ill copel ou o spea" hen please do't sa i" Oh but I shall here and no; and hat I sa ill be on oah I sear o ou bbut b ho b ha god Or shall it be b his plane ree I sear that unless ou deliver o speech here in its ver presence I il assured never again declai nor report an other speech b an auhor hasoever" ha ou rogue " And so on All this is pe coed And Socrates sees o be carring his joe o its cliax hen he covers his head so he can rush hrough is speech ithou looing a ou and breaing don for shae Aferards oeer Socraes ill give a copleel dieren inerpreaion of his gese ill spea of i as oen of religious ae and shae over he blaspheous hings he is abou o sa or Socraes he conten the ruh or falsehood reains he decisive and serious aspec of speech; Phaedrus on e oher hand expects o hear hi outdo Lsias' foral accoplishen o be sure Socrates dilgenl fosters his isdersanding Socrates hen begs is speech I oo is a coship peech s as agreed igh a he beginning hoever a dierence beee and Lsias speech becoes apparen a dierence hich exends also o the real of for In Lsias' speech he speaer hiself and his actual nten ion reained obscure Socrates begins b clearl idenif ing the speaker: Once upon a ie there as a ver hand soe o, or rather ogster, ho had a host of lovers; and one of the as il and had persuaded the o tha he as no love th h ough real he as qute s uch as he others d on one occasion in pressing his
u e acuall soug o convnce i a e oug o favor a nonlover raer an a lover. And is s e pur por of wa e said Ten follows e coursp speec iself I is clear en a s no ocraes i self wo is speakng bu soeone wo wans o deceive wil cea wo no onl lies bu lies for is own ulerior purpose Tis cea oreover speaks uc ore blunl uc ore consisenl an e speaker of Lsias' speec 2 37 Bo desire e lover as well as e nonlover How 3 en are we o singuis e one fro e oer Now sias deiniel did no wan o a so plainl wile Socraes b is ver decness eans o expose e ab urdi and nuani of e arguen He apliies and exaggeraes Being in love love satering erotic eoion all ese are noting bu naked desire linked w i consideraeness and uselessness Onl e nonlover can be considerate and reasonable e alone can do rig o e rguen runs Karl Joel 2 as coened a possibl is can or us be undersood as a parosic allusion o e docrines of e Cnics suc as were dvocaed b Anisenes a copanion of lao wo claied o derive e fro ocraes. In a case e speec and above all its recantaion would cuire an unexpeced coneporanei for us or Anis enes is an asounngl odern igure e ig be called e irs eboen of e worker Here for e irs ie we ind set for an ideal caracerized b over evauation of dicut and eort; b e ack of a e epivi o ar b nadeuae responsiveness o love for eoion is regarded as weakness uc n ideal n fac sees like a forerunner of e odern functionar wose world ere is onl eroic noise bu no usic onl
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scpline but no free o; onl anl bearing" but no aa unforced geses; and consistent on the aked brutihne of sex separated fro love It is quite poible tha Plaos ocrate ean to ora jut such a pe hi hoever can scarcel be proved; for he hole reatent of the subject i o thoroughl a parod e shall have to iagine the tone in hich his speech s devered as a cobination of pedantr and highsound ng batho ocrate begins like a chooater ith broad oplacent hairplitting He hielf calls attention to the athetc qualit of hi rearks; after he ha inished saing grandiloquentl that love i nothing but overoering desire hich gains aster over judgent he interrupt hielf and presuabl peering out fro under his loak aks Well Phaeus friend do ou think as I do hat I a divinel inspired" Whereupon Phaeus fail ng o notice he acute ron replies Undoutedl ocrate ou have been vouchsafed a quite unuual elo quence hen listen to e in silence" ocrates co ands or tl there sees to be a divine presence n hs spot so that ou ust not be sprised if as speech proceeds I becoe as one possessed; alread stle is no far fro hrabic" Ve ue" Phedrus a But for that ou are responsible ill let e con inue Anone ho fails o notice the eleent of coed in this s I fear beond help4 At he end it eerges even ore plainl ocrates gros tired of the pose He has ound up s eech b rag agans overs aer e nner o Lia or perhaps o he Cic Anishenes isng ta love is no love a all but hger anial apeie; as olf o lb o oer to his lad d then he ab breaks
o here ou have haeus. No a ord ore sha ou have fro e haedrus ojecs ha he s on hafa hrough; ha he si has o deiver a paean o he nonover. Wh s ocraes ha nsead ou reak o Whereupon ocraes once ore poins ou he oas and ahos of his speech M dear good an haven' ou noiced ha I've go ee ond dihra and a reaking ou no epic verse despie fauinding Wha do ou suppose I sha do f I sar exoing he oher pe Don ou see I sha cear e ossessed. . . Bu e us consider ocraes speech as a whoe and ask ha is content signiies rednder sees o e gves an exceen and copee accurae anasis of ha con en ocraes speech he sas s no eans ere a eediing and fora revsion of he speech of sas. aher i is siuaneous a orking ou of he huan signiicance hich as vague and herefore a he ore dangerous ipic in sias ophsc producion Uni he ipici dangers have een rough o igh ocraes canno igh he In hs speech herefore he speaker shos ever word he sas wha a o vie e akes of ove. . . . In oher ords nsead of aking a drec aack upon an aiude goveed usavory eroics ocraes ere voices ha aiude in such a a ha exposes ef Tha s he urden of ocraes' irs speech" The eec of ocraes' speech is o unask he speaker" aking hi a his ord ocraes sops arup. Wih soe rusuenes he es haedrus ha he has no spoken enough I i ke a self o across he river here efore ou ive e o greaer engh" Oh u no no i he scorching noonda
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eat! haedrus exclais in disa Socrates ields to this arent oever havg fro one oent to the next ecoe dea serious he adduces an alogeher dierent eason At the oent hen I as about to cross he ver dear friend here cae o e faiiar divine hich alas checks e hen on he poin of doing eing or oher A grea deal has been rien abou he Socratean aimoio Socraes' on account of i especiall i his Apolog is he ost auoriative You have heard e peak of i an ties; the divine voice has been con anl h e all through fe tl no opposing e quite sall aters if I ere no going o ac righl; soeties it has sopped e in he iddle of a speech ; ut today alhough I as on a to co to he death entence it has been silentbecause ha has happened to e is a good" ab If e consider his and ilar explanaions fro Socrates hiself e cannot conc ih those interpreters ho hold tha he daion a sply conscence Raher e ust consider i as a phe oenon belongg o the oracular real 6though that of course aes is nate no clearer In an case this racular sign no coes o Socraes I seeed o hear a oice forbidding e to leave he spo unil I had ade atoneen for soe oense o heaven I undersand aead ell enough hat oense as Here Socraes is banding ters hich uneuivocall belong o he sphere of religion the daionic sign; ense o he dvne aoneen he soul as seer hch recognzes s on errors he hself needs to aone and he clearl eazes his harmare hich eans nohg ore nor es han sin"
hat are ou aing" Phaedru ak and ocrate re d plie that oth peeche were terrile the one Phaedru rought with him and the one he compelled ocrate to ake ow o" Phaedru ak nd ocrate anwer: he were foolih and omewhat lapheou and what could ore terrile than that" At lat ocrate i peaking for himelf rue patho reak through and wth an angr geture he weep aide the equivocation of rank pleaureeeking Iron laughter and inall the lightning of lt language have cleared he air he have made room for the onl uect which lato reall think worth dicuin and which i no taken up a edtation upon love and erotic eotion consdered in term of the whole of huan exitence nd an esetial part of that whole i that life not deined solel te of the alltoohuan the nothinguthuman
he Kerkegaardan eersal ocaon of he aeshec leads to re igous truh he power of recanaon and repenance "oe among free men he emergence of he images of the ods he asuerade goes on.
B the tie we have reached the present point in the aogue we a well feel ourseves thwarted the unreting iron the oscurities and aiguities of the as querade and the constant necessit to reappraise wha has ust been said We a egin to wonder whether we have succeeded in clarifng the atter under discussion and hether we have reall ade an progress Let us then s up ou ndings We have heard Lsias speech on the thee of Love a speech which represents the voice of the enlightened avantgarde intelligentsia His stateent cast choice and polished diction is based on a rationalistic ew of life as a techniue" which attepts to secure a axiu of pleasure th a niu of coplications " The language dras a vei over the rel ipulse naked desire directed purel toward pleasure in the ost un sao ee o a wod ded a oec onsideration and decenc On he other hand the shat erin eotion whch is the natural accopanient of ove appears in Lsias' speech as roanticis exaggera
ion, unnecessar upeaval a sensible, eperae eisence, eicall uestionable, and fac basicall ioral. No doub suc eories were widel discussed aong e ounger generation laos Aens uc arguen us ave enjoed wide publici, wereas e ocraiclaonic docrine us ave seeed opelessl esoteric b coparison, liied o a ver sall circle, wiou wide appeal or inuence. Te wole one f Lsias discourse n e ee of Love is e superior, selfassured one of a odernis." Is auor knows a will arouse iediae eco and applause aong ose wo are iellecuall alive." ure enoug, aedrus, a represenaie of e inellecuall alive ounger generaion, enusiasicall ails is speec b e ables wier f e age. He and is fellows are se e are e avangarde. Ad ocraes, so uerl of dieren d a e cano even accep e wa e quesio is osed, onicall capiulaing before e carelessness w wic aedrus swalows wolesale ese ipossible, uan, destrucie deasocrates aeps o epose e absdi of suc docrines b aking e a eir word and pursuing e eir ae consequences. e aeps is, bu e aep fails. aedrus sipl fails o noice; even ocaes preposerou speec sikes i as wonderful, or a eas ineresing and iportan. Enralled as e is cie b lierar quali, e a e er leas considers a respecable rival perforance. Unil nall ocraes loses paience w i. And now ocraes speaks for iselfsarpl, unspargl, wiou an concern for wa e followers of fasonable deas g epec of . We wness soeing wic ren Kierkegaard wo ousand ears laterciing
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ocaes incidenaened as e undering principe o is ie as a rer o ege a person no e ru 1 n is Kierkegaard sees e ieutic or ide's unc ion o e ier's ar: e [e reigious rier us ave evering in reaness oug ou ipaence a vie o brging orard e reigious prop as soon as e perceives a e as is readers i so a e oenu gained b devoion o e aeseic e rus eadong ino conac eigious 2 We ave reaced e po n e daogue a ic ocraes perors a e ig ca e Kierkegaardian evesa e akes aes aaion or ora eoquence rus eadong ino e religious ru abou Love No is oe one and anner cange e asuerade s over; insead e ear a ne oe o srong eoion Fro is ver ouse e second speec on ros pan sprngs ro reigious nspaion A e preous verbi age is disssed no on as supid and absurd bu q epici as sin as baspe praciced or e sake o g praise ro enas oug i ere good sense o deceive a e serabe peope and in e appause Bu a ocraes is gog o sa no be ore an cocion or even recanaion; t will be toneent I ave o puri se I soud be noed a copee ne eeens are eing iroduced ere Wiao cas is second speec ocraes ic acua begns n e daogue a oreign body," even stystcaly. Tat s scarcely an exageraion en oever Wilao goes on o sa a e od naure as sped Socraes o dne adess e s bscuring e decisive aco raning oc
rate' repeated reference to the dvnte of the countr ide of the pring of the had pot under the plane ree e the true eanng of uch language f e take i a ere phraeolog the idle reark of an educated d Noada of coure e a peak of nph and of te Mue thout attrbuting an ubtantal realt to the; the ord are ere cultural tag But that a not the ca t ocrate t hould be apparent that the concept of acrilege and are necearl tied to the concept of dvint trictl peakg in i drected agat od her i no real ing againt an ocrate and lato are a aare that a the author of the Miserere pal 50, e reaon ocrate peak of acrilege in godlene i 2 4 2 tated o an ord Love i a god or oething e 2 divine he idea of expiaton atoneent and purication ho ever pertan not jut to relgion alone but to relgiou ritual in the trct ene the cleang o thoe puritie hch exclude a peron fro rtual he reek al thought of expaton a priaril a rite uch a ahg in ong ater or in the ea he ea rine aa all the evil of an 4 On the ther hand uch rituatic expation a not eparated fro the ethical apect o atoneent fro convicton voltion and converion oc rate peak of recantaton a of an old for of expaton and purcaton He coent hoever that Hoer d not undertand it h an extraordnar coent hich ould not preue to explain All the ae it a be that ocratelato are ipling that Hoer a a the cae in hi anecdotes about e god and hi pictu
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f he drearness of lfe in he oher world, was scarcely respecng he sacred raion on hs pon eher In fac recanaon repenance as an old ode of expiaon and puricaon, a irs glance sees a highly unrek idea Nezsche 5 leaped o hs decepve conclusion and defended i persisenly and passionaely u lao and Socraes see o have really upheld he prcple f he urfyng power of repenance Socres appears o e drawing on he sae eaphor when he says ha he wishes o wash he er ase ou of hs ouh wih a draugh of he swee sprng waer of wholesoe discourse He s gong o ake a new speech n whch he recans wha has een sad n he wo preceng speeches I shall aep o ake y due palinode o Love and no onger velng y head for shae, u uncoered hus Socraes a las gves he real reason for his srange gesure f coerng hs hed He had no done so ou of earrass en a aeping o coee wih he exper wrer Lysas, u ou of ischyne shae, he feelng of having done soehng dsgracefu Yes, dear Phaerus you undersand how irreveren he wo seeches ere, he one in he ook and ha whch folowed hey were irreeren and shaeful no onl efore he gods, u also efore en alhough no eery ne would hae fel his, u only a an of nole and sensi ve charcer In oher words, Socraes is sayng Lsias an I spoke as hough real, noble, generous love never exised as hough decency were sly a con, a nave, unrealic ea uoe, ocae , e ee eg liened o y a an of generous and huane characer, ho loed or had once loved anoher such as hself o' he e sure o hink ha we had een rough up
amng galey slaves and had never seen ve amng fee men" Is it necessary to point out at this cnrast betwee galley slaves and free men has nthing to do wih the social phenmenon of slavery In Plato (and in istotle also, who for example speaks of forms of music which ress slaves and animals 6 there is a concept of slavery which no social changes, no emancipation of the slaves, can wpe o the face of the earth. his conception is rooted i the belef that what is truly uman is ever the average. The standard by which tru and falsehood, good and evil, are measured, is not alone e dvine, but also the human. o put that more exactly the standard is what man himself is capable of being, and what he is called up to be. he man before whom Socrates feels shame is not just any body. Rather, Socrates is referring to Phaedrus hself, a Phaedrus seen the ight of his true human potentialities a Phaedrus who ll have become what he was meant to become. Shamed i this sense, Socrates wshes to recat his shamefully fase speech by a second speech on Love. hs second speech is the rea content of e dalogue it is also what makes reading e rest worth while. I have gone to such pains to analyze the preliminaries to Socrates recantation i order to show the fundamental change of atmosphere that has taken place since Phaedrus, coming from the dubious company which he met Lysias, ran across Socrates. he dialgue situation is by now under he sign o anoher planet, as it were. hey had begun to tal under the sign of pleasure" and literature." heir tone was that of sophisticated indierence to what ma truy is and wha he truly ought to aim for. In he society which gives rise to such attitudes, men are hedged in by
oncern for proi and oss. They anxiousy coun e very advage eig he sakes agas heir possib gains. his is he vaporous real of ord egois hich en are consantl rying o ge as uc as e an for he les price Tha hoe pose is no shaered y Socraes ac and procaaion. Socraes seps for ro e fogs into he clear gh of heaven as i ere. pace of a lierary exercise e have he genuine eoio one ho is saing ha us be said Hihero he vie as been consriced by fear of losing ou on fe's possibe pleasures and beneis. No he iages of he gods eerge and aong h he he ue poteniaies of an ise e ind ourselves breahing fresher ooler purer a. Te asquerade recedes a e have said bu i doe o eniely vanish. lao is caref o avoid he onoton higho professions of faih. Socraes is rarely shon odg or i such a vein; or ha ve reason is seri usness reveals iself all he ore discl and ovingl s i alernaes h ore or less ironic asuerade. Th useri of sole speechag is a once epered and ighliged by an anecdoe hich is playfull ued is ay and ha. Socraes ecos e egend of he Sicilia poe Sesichorus ho old he sory of Helenho he orians egarded as a goddessi he sae a Hoe ad old i Whereupon he as punishedb he godd een blidness. Bu because Sesichorus as "dimoi an a faiia f he Muses e undersood he eason for his bindess and afte rig a recana on ound his sigh resored o hi We are no oneed ee e details o his anecdoe and is possible is cal ackground. Bu e are conceed he fac a Socraes is no plag he pa of Sesichorus o
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as lost his sight and hoes to e healed if he in turn akes ecanaon o oint out the multil allusons of this new asuerade the welth of assoctons hnted at i a gesture erformed" casuall and brie is to run the isk of coarsenng or altogether destroing the delicac of the texture Where is that bo" ocrtes asks like a blind mn call ing for his coanon But at the se tme he means the o he addressed efore and on the other hand he is seak g not as himself ocrates ut as another a erdous deeiver Where is that o I was talking to He ust liste o e once ore and not ush o to eld to his non over" Moreover strictl seakng nether the o wh uides the lind an nor the one o who the revious sheous seech was directed s actuall eant the e who is eant ut not entioned name is haeus! d haedrus at once understandng las along Here he is uite close eside ou whenever ou want h." Nevereless ocrates egins his seech in such a wa hat he is talkig aout haedus as if he were soeone altogethe dierent a stranger not resent at allas if i ac he were dealing with two haeduses one of who the true haedus is lstening to hi now and the othe of who invented that agnicent" discourse Lsias and rovoked ocrates hise ito deliverng a lasheous seech agais Love he rst sentence of the great seech ocrates now launches uon goes: ow ou ust derstand fa o hat whereas the recedig discourse was haedus so of thocles of Mrous that which I shall now rooce We would exect his sentence to end:
no only pretends, ke he as speech, o be e really s e" nstead t coninues tha whic I shall now pronounce s by Stechoru, son of Eupheus, f era his then how t ut " And now ollows the recantaton the panoda It begins wth the ord no" But negation is only th rs word he aratve the ucky follows
v loss f auton aut onomo omous us sel-poss sel-posssi si aia a divine gift. Madess, loss enth usism m Forms Forms of "divie "divie madness madness First: prhetic prhet ic assi enthusis ecstas ecstasy y Delhi Dodo h Sibyl iew place?
Sterility o he historical historica l poi
Enthusim, the ke rd rd Second "cathartic
puricati nd healig
aia
How does revelatio revelati o ta Madness as recoditio or
Frezy Frezy oetry, ad isirtio isirti o
ng, Hlderl Hlderli, i, Goethe Ben Be n
Less Less
Who s "the oet oe t??
The greatest blessgs coe by way o ani, insoa s ani is heaensent This pronounceent o Socates uestionably ors the ery heart o the whole dialoue Fo the oent we shall leae the basic word ni nslated The sentence is aed not only agast ysias ypothe ypoth e s is, is , which whic h Socr So crat ates es preten pre tended ded t o echo ec ho h i s pao pa ody dy ysias' speech; it is also aed against te ideas cently i ogue in Athenian society Te ew thesis contas within itsel a whole iew o e uierse Aboe all, it sets orth a daental piio the eang o ua eistence The subject o Loe, c peiously peiously ored ored the cenal thee of the discose s ot een mentioned This at st glance rather astonis ng silence is le with the act that the discussion has ee shited to new and wider perspeces But i we are o b prepar prep ared ed to a ccep cc ept, t, o ee e e erely to ollow ol low th thee a
eaching arguentation hich no begins e ust rst clarif n n o on inds just hat as the blasphe bla spheou ous s eleent n the precedng speeches on Love or both those speeches are the nature of conclusons. That is to sa the are the applcation" of a larger doctrne concernng the nature of an. d ocrates taes ssue th that doctrine and proounds his o thesis conceing an and the eanng of hs lfe Hs irst step s to break do a nonsensical restriction The fashonable ophstic publicists" have done thei best to focus the readers' thought and attenton upon a supercial theor of rtation" so to spea. ocrates rfuses even to enter the arena of such dscussionsnot because he ishes to avoid avoi d the the subject of Eros but because he h e ants ants to place that subject n ts onl approprate context Therefore his attac is drected against the general ve of an hch holds aong other thngs that the rght approach toard sensual gratication is one of cool objectivt T put that general concepton a nutshell t is that an s a copletel autonoous beng hose on nature s gven nto his hand le a a ateral hich a be orked n an anner he pleases; a being ho deternes his on purposes; ho hiself arranges his exstence y rational techniues for living and hose dignt therefore deands that he fend o an nterference th this real of perfect selfpossessionhatever the source f that nterference a be This pcture of an s hat ocrates attacks in the speech that foos Hs oostion to an such conceton of an s the e hch alone alon e explains expl ains hat he has to sa ocrates then does not contend that Eros s not mani ut he denies that mania tself s siply an evl a sc
ess" as the hss cll n the argn her techues fr lvng We cannt sa wheth whether er sethng s r is nt a sckness untl we have deterined what we en b health And ths s where crates and hs ppnents der s wdel n ther vews huan sundness Hs stateent hwever s rather subtle crates des nt aintain that mania is ral t an and essental to his sundness sundness Rather Rather he sas that tha t it is nt nt an evl ev l n n every every case r des he utrghtl declare mania a gd nstead e sas that it can pssbl be a eans an aid a path t gd in fact even t the greatest blessngsn cndtn, tha is tha mania is iparted t an as a divine git But what is eant b mania? he rd is ten ansated frenz r madness But adness" sees t e an nadeuate and isleading dentin n the rst place the wrd cnntes sundness and irratinalit n the econd pace it gves the ipressn that Scrates is tak ing abut sething r the real f pritve agc It suggests tes th the orgastic Dinsian cults his eect akes his ideas see alen and n serius cncern t us he ter frenz n the ther hand suggests sehing petic rantic nessentia sething that ay even be arbtrar arbtraril il induced b b a drug nce again idea i deass this srt eed nt reall cncern us We d t have to ake he seriusly If we consider all he aspects mania hich Plat entins we shall have t say that he uses the wrd t ean priarl a beingbesdenesel a lss cand ver nese surrender f autarchc ndeendence and sefcntrl a state which e are nt actve ut passe e do nt act but suer sething sethng happens o us. French schlars interpretg this passage Pla speak
o transport, that is, a condition o being caied aa out o the center o one's o being But all these alternatives oe o oe element o what Plato means the element o weaess or, i we will, o sicness and derangement" et t s also conceivable that this eibesideoesel ma ot be caused b metal sturbace, ot b poso or gs but b a divie power The Deit s the trul active source rom which something happes to ma For this er reaso, we caot spea simpl o maness or freny out urther ualiig the words I the word enthus sm were ot so debased English, t would act most ittgl describe what Plato itended and indeed he him sel uses it i the sese o beg illed with the god" I e middle o the haeru, Socrates speas o a ma thus 2 possessed b mn The ttde he sas regard h 2 as beg out o his wits or e o ot that he s u o a god [enthousiaon] Now Plato scarcel assers at aoe who s shae erotic emotio s illed t te od so that all orm o Eros are othig more or les a thei mania Suc omatic deas are ot to be od Plato However Socrates speech does mata that erotc emotio ma so e oe wa which ma ca partae o the greatest lesss"provided ma does ot corrupt the erotic emo o or example reusig to pa the price o recep t to the de maess The price s a surreder o s autonom; he must thro himsel open to the god, rather than loc the doors o his so b choosg sensual pleasures alone But beore he comes to this, Socrates speas o uite dierent matters As we hae sad, o oe w uderstand their pertece who has ot gven due consideratio to the
ee tesis posed at te outset. Tis tesis olds tat o te oe ad man is of suc natue tat e possesses isel feedom and selfdetemination; e can and must exae ciically all tat e encounters ; e can and must ve sape to is own life on te basis of is insigts. O e oe and tis same autonomous an is noneteless s uch involved in te Wole of eality that things can happen to im and he can be dislodged from is auonomy. This eed not tae only te for o orcible esticion. Povided tt te ma does ot close self o obduately t may tae suc fo tat in te very loss of is self possession anote fulent is ganted to , one attai able in o ote way. Tis concepion of an, ivolvg as it does a tensio o opposites wic efuses to be educed to smoot foula, ic is i itself a perpetual souce of unestthis conception may be said to ve bee Plato's cenal poblem ougut is lie. To be sue, e did ot always place is stess in exactly te same way. Lie ll tose tuly eaged te pusuit f posopy, e was ot so uc oncened wit inding solutio" and a andy formula; ate, e was anxious not to omit anytg. Consequently e eve denied o ovelooed te fat, that bot utoomy and te sattering of tat autonomy by te intrusion of ige powe ae essetial to te natue of man But e was no always disposed o egad the elquising of sel possessed autonomy as gain. In te ealy dialogues Io d e, as well as i Socates' polog e seems to ephasizing the iea of loss athe than gain Ps tose in manic frenzy do not now what hey are saying tey spea the tuth ut not on the basis of eal owleg wic, if they had it, would be thei on propety, a the
