The Plato Paradigm

Praise is such an important element in Socrates' funeral speech that it is not enough to praise the fallen soldiers, but their parents, ancestors, Athens, and mother Attica. Furthermore, it is claimed that because Attica is god-loved, all people should praise Attica as well. Socrates' forensic evidence for all this is preposterous. One might almost suspect that Socrates is making a point about the...

Pericles had decided to begin his eulogy of the dead by beginning with their ancestors, a prelude to his exposition of the history of Athens as a great state reflected in the greatness of the dead. Socrates also decides to begin with the ancestors or parents, as the good cause of good men, but he then dwells on the cause of the ancestors, the father/motherland itself, which effectively puts him ba...

Socrates asks in his speech, "As what would such a speech appear to us?" This is a question we need to address. Here I read through Platonic dialogues, translating and commenting on the Greek text as I go. The resulting analyses may be found at: https://theplatoparadigm.com The full analyses include Euthyphro, Io, Hippias Minor, and Lysis, with extract/summaries from my books on Hippias Major, Men...

We finally arrive at Socrates' funeral oration. Pericles had referred to the deeds of the dead soldiers; Socrates refers to the deeds of the city and family members in honouring the dead. Pericles suggests that a speech might detract from the memory of the soldiers whose deeds speak for themselves; Socrates treats the speech as an automatic addition to the practical honouring of the dead already a...

Socrates goads Menexenus into wanting to hear Socrates' speech, which Menexenus knows may not be by Aspasia. Why he is so interested in hearing the speech is still a matter of speculation. Here I read through Platonic dialogues, translating and commenting on the Greek text as I go. The resulting analyses may be found at: https://theplatoparadigm.com The full analyses include Euthyphro, Io, Hippias...

Despite what Socrates has told Menexenus about the training orators have in learning how to put together a funeral speech appropriate to the occasion, he now claims that Aspasia beat into him verbaitm the funeral speech she would expect to be delivered by whoever the council finally chooses. Here I read through Platonic dialogues, translating and commenting on the Greek text as I go. The resulting...

Menexenus might have been expected to ask about the principles of composing a speech, yet he is still interested in a particular speech and the author of that speech. I continue my musings on Aspasia and her significance in this dialogue. Here I read through Platonic dialogues, translating and commenting on the Greek text as I go. The resulting analyses may be found at: https://theplatoparadigm.co...

It's not too hard to appear to be a good speaker when you are praising your own people. If you've been taught, as Socrates has been, by such an outstanding teacher of rhetoric as the escort-girl Aspasia, you will be unstoppable. Here I read through Platonic dialogues, translating and commenting on the Greek text as I go. The resulting analyses may be found at: https://theplatoparadigm.com The full...

Socrates completes his rhetorical account of the rhetorical aim of public eulogy. Menexenus appears to brush it off, and expresses a naive concern that the person to be chosen to deliver the eulogy won't have time to prepare. Socrates sets about explaining to him the facts of life. Here I read through Platonic dialogues, translating and commenting on the Greek text as I go. The resulting analyses...

In an apparent reaction to the importance Menexenus attaches to the choice of eulogist, Socrates exclaims how in many places dying in war is a fine thing, and proceeds to deliver a lengthy sentence supposedly explaining why this is so. The reasons he give present the eulogy as a well-rehearsed spell cast over the listeners to divorce them from reality and make them feel that the situation is much...

Menexenus has just come from the bouleuterion (the council house) in the agora, where he has learned that the eulogy over the dead will be delivered by one of two people. Of interest to us is the motive of Menexenus is going to the bouleuterion. Is it political ambition, as Socrates insinuates, or something else? Here I read through Platonic dialogues, translating and commenting on the Greek text...

I've chosen to read Menexenus next, since we've just finished Lysis, in which Menexenus was one of the boys, while here he is a little older. It is unclear how a dialogue which is mostly a sample of a funeral oration delivered by Socrates to Menexenus will support my contention that Platonic dialogues are dramatizations of one or other idea , and it will be particularly interesting if this turns o...

If the dialogue is actually a demonstration of aspects of good and apparent good, then what is the function of friendship (philia) in it? I suggest that philia in Lysis serves the same function as justice in Politeia (Republic), as a handy criterion by which to judge the various types of goodness and apparent goodness. Here I read through Platonic dialogues, translating and commenting on the Greek...

The verbiage in the dialogue hardly represents the best of philosophical argument, but it is an excellent demonstration of the clash between various character types representing aspects of good or apparent good. The attempt is commendable, but not so clear-cut and fully elaborated as it is in Politeia (Republic), which for this and other reasons must be considered to be a later work. Here I read t...

The first conversation supposedly on philia which Socrates narrates is with Lysis alone. We actually learn more about Lysis and his alternative approach to being better than others (and therefore apparently good), while Menexenus seems to prefer verbal debate as his means of appearing good. Here I read through Platonic dialogues, translating and commenting on the Greek text as I go. The resulting...

The narrated conversation between Socrates and the boys is in two parts. The second is mainly with Menexenus. Here I read through Platonic dialogues, translating and commenting on the Greek text as I go. The resulting analyses may be found at: https://theplatoparadigm.com

The dialogue is traditionally considered to be about friendship. The structure of the dialogue suggests that there is more to it than that. For example, the narrated conversation between Socrates and the boys Lysis and Menexenus is contextualized as a demonstration to Hippothales on how to speak to one's lust object with a view to catching him. We may deduce from the non-reaction of the unknown au...

The dialogue concludes with Socrates disappointing both his audiences. He suggests to Lysis and Menexenus, his apparent friends, that they are a laughingstock to the others because they do not know what a friend is. As for his unknown audience, who would surely identify with Hippothales eager to learn from Socrates how to captivate a lust object, we may imagine the confusion caused by Socrates hav...

Socrates gives a summation of the case, as if in a lawcourt, listing all the things which friendship is not. Were the list to be true, we would need to conclude not only that friendship is still undefined, but that it is altogether impossible Here I read through Platonic dialogues, translating and commenting on the Greek text as I go. The resulting analyses may be found at: https://theplatoparadig...

The boys a.re unchanged by the entire conversation, despite Socrates' attempt to intoxicate them with words. The main problem the boys have is an inability to compare what is being said with what has been said earlier. Politeness is a Good Thing according to poisoners, but some friendly criticism and opposition is the alcoholic antidote to hemlock. Alcohol only works, however, if it is ingested He...

More evidence at the end of the dialogue that the boys are unable to put two thoughts together to create a rational conclusion. They appear not to understand even what "the same" means, let alone what "the proper" means. They return to assumptioms already refuted in previous arguments. Socrates is far from making them dialectically drunk; they appear to be teetotallers. Here I read through Platoni...

Musings on a single sentence which may throw light on the entire dialogue. Socrates claims that they are, as it were, drunk by the logos. The need for the strange example earlier on of a dear son who has drunk hemlock being cured by a father with the aid of wine now makes sense If Socrates, the author of the logos, is the one applying alcohol to the problem, who is applying hemlock? I offer a few...

An incautious reader of the dialogue might conclude that the entire discussion between Socrates, Lysis, and Menexenus, is a demonstration for Hippothales' benefit, designed to prove that the one lusted should love the one lusting. Hippothales, at least, is reportedly delighted with the result. The boys are not so happy. As for Socrates, he does not reveal his utter frustration with the mental slug...

Socrates finally reaches his sophistic conclusion, unsettling for Lysis, but Menexenus appears blissfully unaware of the implications. What is very clear is that the boys are oblivious to the sophistry itself. It would appear that Socrates' attempt to make the boys become critical, if not entirely dialectical, has failed. Here I read through Platonic dialogues, translating and commenting on the Gr...

Socrates uses the same terminology from three different arguments to mix and match and thoroughly confuse Menexenus into agreeing that the one who desires someone is that person's friend. Here I read through Platonic dialogues, translating and commenting on the Greek text as I go. The resulting analyses may be found at: https://theplatoparadigm.com