Plato's Phaedrus: Rhetoric Analysis

Plato’s Phaedrus is a dialogue between three characters: Lysias, Socrates and Phaedrus. The topic discussed revolves around the idea of love, but it particularly emanates around the true art of rhetoric. Plato uses his three characters to show how rhetoric originates from the truth and how its practice shows readers that the truth correlates to thinking and learning in a proper philosophical manner. Phaedrus and Socrates meet outside the walls protecting Athens. Coming back from Lysias’s house, Phaedrus develops his passion for speeches. Socrates is aware of Phaedrus’s love for speeches and is determined to hear Phaedrus recite speeches like the Great Orator did. Socrates suggests that him and Lysias should move to a more quiet and isolated place. This scene is …show more content…
Phaedrus is aware of the danger he is in as Lysias is making a suggestion that erotic love is the best type of love. Lysias’s speech doesn’t consist of “real knowledge” because he has no definition of terms and no proper arrangement of arguments. Even though his speech doesn’t make sense and isn’t philosophically right, he is trying to convince Phaedrus into doing the wrong actions along with putting his own opinion. Lysias resembles the Dark Horse because the Dark Horse possesses the traits having an irrational opinion and a pleasant principle. Lysias is basically Eros, the concept that physical and unemotional love is just. He possesses selfish appetite which further elaborates on the fact that he does things only to his benefit. His limited understanding about the good, the truth, and the beautiful is shown when he incorporates his opinion (Plato pg. 78). Lysias’s ethos is compromised because he attempts to define the difference between love and sex meaning that certain actions are done for pleasure and other benefits to only one out of the two people. Lysias’s speech consists of expressive rhetoric meaning that he lacks the