The Plato Paradigm

In this final section of the dialogue, Socrates provides Io with two options. Either Io has techne and refuses to divulge his sophia to Socrates, and is therefore doing wrong, or he has no techne but is divinely inspired. Should he choose to be considered unjust or divine? Here I read through Platonic dialogues, translating and commenting on the Greek text as I go. The resulting analyses may be fo...

Socratae, beginning his concluding remarks, presents the first of his two options for Io. Accordinng to this first option, Io is doing Socrates wrong by purposely shapeshifting in order to avoid revealing how clever he is with regard to the sophia of Homer. Here I read through Platonic dialogues, translating and commenting on the Greek text as I go. The resulting analyses may be found at: https://...

Socrates finishes off the argument refuting Io's claim that he is a general, let alone a good general, incidentally revealing that the dramatic date of the dialogue is around 413 BC, after the disastrous Athenian campaign against Syracuse. 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.c...

Socrates begins dismantling Io's claim that he has a techne common to rhapsodes and generals. Io accepts that he is the best rhapsode and the best general, but he cannot accept that any general is also a rhapsode, for the very good reason, I suggest, that a general is not a rhapsode. This is not a refutation based on logic, but an argument from observation. Here I read through Platonic dialogues,...

Having essentially agreed (in not so many words) that each techne has exclusive subject matter, it is perhaps surprising that Io remains steadfast over his claim that the rhapsode and the strategos share the same techne. 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

Io had been forced to narrow the rhapsode's expertise down to knowing what sort of things it would be fitting for different types of people to say, ,such as a man, a woman, a slave or a ruler, rather than any type of craftsman. However, Socrates has derailed this approach to rhapsody by giving each of these types of people various types of techne: the ruler he has turned into a ruler of a ship at...

Io misspoke when he formulated the rhapsode's techne as the ability to know the sort of things any type of person should say. It is easy for Socrates to make Io admit that craftsmen of all other crafts will say things connected to their crafts more finely than a rhapsode could - this after all is what they have been assuming for a long time now. Here I read through Platonic dialogues, translating...

What began as a question over who can judge better when Homer is speaking well has recently become a question of which techne is better suited to judge the subject matter of the poem. In every case, the professional associated with the subject matter being discussed is preferred to the rhapsode, since Io accepts the sophistic principle of exclusivity (if one techne knows X, then the rhapsodic tech...

Socrates quotes another Homeric example of the mantike techne (the craft of the seer). Unlike the first example, a prophecy, the.second example is an omen. 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

Socrates adds to the medical quote from Homer a quote from the techne (craft) of fishing, and another from the craft of divination. It still appears to Io that professionals rather than a rhapsode would be able to better judge whether Homer speaks well about these ultimately minor details from entire professions.. Here I read through Platonic dialogues, translating and commenting on the Greek text...

Socrates makes a meal of the refutation. One point I don't discuss in the podcast is why a charioteer would want to judge a poet anyway, and the question may be directed at the judging of rhapsodes in competitions. What exactly is being judged? Their knowledge of the subject matter talked about by the poet, or their ability to perform the poem? This would seem to be an easy question to answer, but...

Socrates is still sophistically establishing the exclusivity of the subject matter of a craft, such that the subject matter of one techne cannot be the subject matter of another techne. 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

Spcrates continues developing his sophistic argument which will eventually lead to yet another proof that rhapsody is not a techne (craft or skill). We two use the same skill concerning the same content, such as knowing that Socrates is holding up five fingers. It would seem to follow that different content therefore requires different skills. Here I read through Platonic dialogues, translating an...

Socrates' apparently dialectical elenchus turns out to be more of a sophistic exercise with the foregone false conclusion that only a charioteer (having the techne of chariot racing) would understand what Homer says about chariot racing. Not only are there several obvious flaws in the construction of the argument, but the very idea that it is Homer rather than Nestor speaking is also concerning, b...

While the four rhetorical arguments to prove that Io lacked techne and nous at the moment he delivered well the best of Homer were, according to Io, spoken well, they were not convincinng. Socrates changes tack, deciding to stop arguing to persuade in favour of questioning, but still with a view to challenging Io's view that he has a techne. If Io speaks well, he must surely know what Homer is tal...

Socrates' four analogies supporting his claim that Io lacks techne, nous, or episteme whenever he performs the best of Homer's poems, is easily dismissed by Io who appreciates Socrates' rhetoric, but remains unconvinced by it. He observes that Socrates speaks well. Coincidentally, this is now what also concerns Socrates about Io. On what subject in Homer's poems does Io speak well? Here I read thr...

Socrates completes his fourth analogy illustrating why rhapsodes lack techne and episteme when performing a poet's best poems in the best way possible. This time, very little of substance seems to have been added to the original magnet analogy. Possibly an attempt has been made to shift the notion of possession as a divine occupation replacing the rhapsode's intelligence towards the notion of poss...

Purportedly to explain why even the emotions instilled in the spectator are not due to the skill of the rhapsode, the fourth analogy is a refinement of the first analogy about magnets. Instead of a magnet attracting many rings which in turn attract many other rings, this time there are only three rings in a chain, and this must be explained. Here I read through Platonic dialogues, translating and...

Now that Io has agreed that he is affected by the poetry he declaims, Socrates asks whether the audience is similarly affected, and Io makes it clear that it is his job to know that they are. 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

Having shown to Io's delight with three examples why poets lack techne, Socrates begins to interrogate Io in order to determine that rhapsodes also lack techne. The reason for rhapsodes lacking techne differs from the reasons Socrates ascribed to the poets. Here I read through Platonic dialogues, translating and commenting on the Greek text as I go. The resulting analyses may be found at: https://...

My final thoughts on the three analogies concerning the mindlessness of poets producing good poetry. Socrates then returns to the rhapsodes who are interpreters of interpreters, given that poets are interpreters (or expounders of expounders - hermenes of hermenes). Io replies, "Absolutely!". Here I read through Platonic dialogues, translating and commenting on the Greek text as I go. The resulting...

Ostensibly to prove the third claim regarding the lack of intelligence of poets at the time of performing a poem, Socrates adduces the famous example of an otherwise worthless poet whose paeon is widely considered to be the best of lyric poetry. Socrates, as usual, inserts a number of inconsistencies no doubt calculated to make Io think dialectically, although nothing of the sort happens, Here I r...

Socrates adds a third reason for the poets' lack of intelligence, inconsistent with the other two reasons. 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

Socrates makes some interesting wordplays and confusions between the two analogies - the magnet and the bees. Io does not react. As he said earlier, he enjoys listening to "you sophoi". Socrates has contrasted an accurate but prosaic analogy with a highly inaccurate and denigrating but poetic and rhetorical analogy. Here I read through Platonic dialogues, translating and commenting on the Greek te...

Socrates continues telling Io about the divine power, this time using the analogy of bees spreading honey. 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