The Plato Paradigm

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

The alternative to Io having a techne is that he is possessed by a divine power. Socrates first uses the magnet analogy. 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 seems almost to challenge Socrates to tell him why he is exceptional as someone with a techne, in that he can talk well only about one practitioner of his techne, although Socrates' last example implies that Io does not have Homer's techne. The techne of poetry and the techne of rhapsody appear to be treated differently. All the technai in this inductive passage are treated incorrectly, as if c...

Socrates appears to perform a normal sequence of induction, but things are not quite what they seem. 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

To exemplify the point that any techne deals with the whole of the field of that techne, Socrates refers to graphike techne, meaning here just painting. Socrates proceeds, however, to talk about the critic of one artist needing to be able to criticize all artists if indeed the techne pertains to the whole. Earlier, Io had said that he excelled as a critic of Homer, but not of other poets, so Socra...

The rhapsode Io can judge of the poets both who speaks well and who speaks less well since he has the appropriate techne, but in the next breath Socrates determines that Io can't judge anyone, even Homer, since he lacks techne and episteme. Even more strangely, Io seems happy with this, and even treats Socrates as a sophos whom he is happy to listen to. Here I read through Platonic dialogues, tran...

Socrates concludes from the examples with arithmetic and medicine that the one who has a techne in a subject is the one who may recognize the one speaking well in the subject and the ones speaking badly (later in the argument, worse = less well), so that Io himself turns out to be the one with techne who can judge that Homer speaks well while the other poets speak less well. Socrates finally uses...

Socrates steers the conversation back to the subject matter by asking who will recognize who speaks well or badly in arithmetic and in medicine. The answer is that the one who has the techne (craft / art) of arithmetic or medicine is the one who will recognize both types of speaker. Why does Socrates not mention a judge (kritēs) explicitly, or the verb "to judge" (dikazō)? He is certainly referrin...

Socrates does dialectic "badly" (as usual), failing to compare and contrast clearly and concisely. He allows Io to revert to an aesthetic understanding of Homer more than once. 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 and Io are already talking at cross-purposes. Socrates appears to want to talk about the rhapsode's ability (as part of his techne) to understand the intent (dianoia) of a poet, while Io states that it is the hardest part of the techne to perfect the expression of the intents (dianoiai) of a poet. Io is motivated to present the poems as beautifully as possible, not as informatively as pos...

Socrates concentrates his supposed envy of rhapsodes on their ability to understand the poet. Apart from the verb "to understand", he also uses the noun "dianoia", which I translate as "intent" or "intention". Io understands Socrates to mean what he himself means by dianoia, the emotional thought to be expressed in any particular passage of a poem. Here I read through Platonic dialogues, translati...

The dialogue Io is very short but still not well understood. All agree that Socrates is talking to a rhapsode. The conversation is simple but Plato's intent is not obvious. 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

We are finally in a position to uncover the underlying concept or idea of the dialogue which is dramatized as it is and as it appears to be (correctly, to a dialectical reader, and incorrectly to the Many) in every aspect of the dialogue. Just as in HIppias Minor and in Politeia, there are actually several paradigms dramatizing this idea in various stages of false appearance. The characters are de...

The deigmata (examples). 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

We look at the various characters in the dialogue, so consistent that they may be regarded as models: Meno, Socrates, Anytus (based on a character in Theognis), Gorgias, Meno's slave. They seem to have features in common, but we still cannot see the diagonal line, as it were, which will make everything fall into place. Here I read through Platonic dialogues, translating and commenting on the Greek...