TY - JOUR
T1 - Arguing for the immortality of the soul in the palinode of the Phaedrus
AU - Moore, Christopher
PY - 2014
Y1 - 2014
N2 - This article argues that in his second speech of the Phaedrus (the "palinode"), Socrates gives an intentionally fallacious argument. He gives this argument, starting "all/every soul is immortal" (245c6-246a2), to show his speech-loving friend Phaedrus how-rather than simply to tell him that-analytic as much as imagistic speech can persuade without deserving conviction. This argument joins four others that recent Phaedrus scholarship has shown to be deliberately misconstructed. The entire dialogue has Socrates demonstrating to Phaedrus that the proper attitude to speech is active and critical scrutiny. "Philosophy"-toward which Socrates wants to turn Phaedrus-is not the rhetorical mode "speaking in sequential inferences" but is instead a kind of shared listening and conversation, an association committed to "making a person most thoughtful." Yet inducting someone into philosophy still depends on some rhetorical mode: the kind that reveals a person's need for a commitment to investigation.
AB - This article argues that in his second speech of the Phaedrus (the "palinode"), Socrates gives an intentionally fallacious argument. He gives this argument, starting "all/every soul is immortal" (245c6-246a2), to show his speech-loving friend Phaedrus how-rather than simply to tell him that-analytic as much as imagistic speech can persuade without deserving conviction. This argument joins four others that recent Phaedrus scholarship has shown to be deliberately misconstructed. The entire dialogue has Socrates demonstrating to Phaedrus that the proper attitude to speech is active and critical scrutiny. "Philosophy"-toward which Socrates wants to turn Phaedrus-is not the rhetorical mode "speaking in sequential inferences" but is instead a kind of shared listening and conversation, an association committed to "making a person most thoughtful." Yet inducting someone into philosophy still depends on some rhetorical mode: the kind that reveals a person's need for a commitment to investigation.
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U2 - 10.5325/philrhet.47.2.0179
DO - 10.5325/philrhet.47.2.0179
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84901491721
SN - 0031-8213
VL - 47
SP - 179
EP - 208
JO - Philosophy and Rhetoric
JF - Philosophy and Rhetoric
IS - 2
ER -