Contemporary Communication

Traveling

Just a quick note that I'll be traveling for a little while,but I'll be back with new content soon!

Dissoi Logoi

In today's episode, we look at how Plato uses a sophistic rhetorical trope in making his arguments about the nature of love, and explore what Socrates' critique of his first speech could teach us about the anxiety we feel when we blunder by saying something horrible and borderline impious.

The Sick Lover

We have a longer episode today as I shift to a weekly format. :-) Today we look at Socrates's first speech, his revision of Lysias's speech, and how he frames the argument that the lover is not to be preferred--but there are a few tricks of framing that Socrates will use here, which we will explore later. One main idea to ponder here, how does all of this talk of love apply to technology?

To love or not to love?

In Lysias's speech, read by Phaedrus, we hear that one should prefer the advances of the sober-minded non-lover, and in today's episode, we will explore why Socrates initially praises the speech before rejecting its argument. I hope you enjoy!

Before you jump in, know this

Taking another walk in the forest, today we will explore Socrates' reasons for declining to explain a myth to his companion. Using the rhetorical device of "Apophasis," and introducing an explanation for a myth by denying that one should spend time explaining myths, Socrates also explains the relationship between self-knowledge and common knowledge. Join me for a too-brief exploration of this topic.