Term Paper on "Phaedrus Provides a Description of the Speech"

Term Paper 6 pages (1668 words) Sources: 0

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Phaedrus provides a description of the speech that occurred between Socrates and Phaedrus. The conversation depicts Phaedrus as a mature individual with love for rhetoric and Lysias. He is articulated as an admirer of rhetoric and a close ally to Socrates, although it is evident that he does not acknowledge, or rather appreciate Socrates notion of life and thought. Plato's ideas are evident where Phaedrus asserts rhetoric as a competition whose purpose is to create an elegant speech greater than one's opponent and that, which terminates when one of the participants withdraws. Phaedrus's notion of philosophy differs from his conception of rhetoric; his conception is that life would be difficult in the absence of philosophical dialogues, which bring about pleasures. However, the portrayal of Phaedrus does not vividly indicate his understanding on the philosophical influences on a person's life.

Socrates speeches may have intentions of helping Phaedrus understand the importance of philosophy in life. Plato's critique of rhetoric is seen from Socrates arguments in regard to the pursuance of truth; he advocates that philosophy is a fundamental aspect since, through it; one can realize the truth, in which the pursuance of rhetoric requires. Plato tackles the question of best individual life; Socrates articulates that madness is a fundamental aspect that propels human life to a better one. This is because madness leads to a philosophy that helps people to lead a rational life. Socrates acknowledges the importance of madness associated with seers and prophets, and which signifies forgiveness from family curses as wells the eros of the poets.

Plato's Gorgias is unique due to the display of dialogues that seems bitter as the exchanges themselves are performed with anger. There is the existence of misunderstandings and also a cutting rhetoric.

Gorgias is compelled to change his notion of rhetoric that it is associated with speeches, to the view that a rhetoric activity and efficiency occur only via words. He considers freedom as the object of rhetoric and immense personal importance. Plato regards rhetoric as the source of liberty, which the aspect is emanating from the ability to persuade people to perform ones request. Gorgias concept of persuasion concerns justice and injustice; the persuasion that implants beliefs rather than knowledge. Plato believes that a rhetorician should be considered a creator of beliefs in the souls of individuals, and without the skill some arts cannot work properly.

Georgias asserts that the skill of a rhetorician is subject to misuse. It is also apparent that the rhetorician is aware of the moral aspects as well as justice and injustice. From Socrates, a rhetorician is a thinker; however, Gorgias is not one and therefore, incapable of offering a description of various moral qualities. There is a point that agrees with the fact that rhetoricians do not know, or are not able to pass knowledge because it is not an art, but an experience. In Georgias, the speech of Socrates with Polus brings about the issue of the correlation between power and justice. Socrates believes that a person becomes happy if one is morally upright. Polus thinks that power, is enough to make a person happy. Plato's assertions indicates that rhetoric and sophistry associate to a thesis concerning the insignificance of truth in regard to happiness.

Question 2

Nietzsche's theory of perspectivalism asserts that all ideations emanate from particular viewpoints. This is an indication that several perspectives exists to perform the judgment of truth and value. Nietzsche's theory is against Kent's metaphysical conception of realism. Nietzsche emphasizes on perspectivalism expressing his rejection to metaphysical pragmatism, the aspect which when identified with non-empirical results to detachment of truth, and validation. Nietzsche's arguments help the reader separate the correlation between perspectival espitemology and pragmatism. He believes that the notion of philosophy has led to a dualistic system that embraces the concept of truth as an honorable, plus an epistemological essential.

According to Nietzsche, the 'will to truth' is a want for disinterested truth communicated as a denial against the intuitions and the concern they exemplify. The description of the 'truth' as provided by Nietzsche is that the 'will of truth' is derision against all things that are perishable, or can change. He asserts that philosophy has led philosophers to work in a situation where reality is considered to be an additional-empirical sphere of truth, contrary to the normal empirical world considered to be a sphere of dishonesty plus untruth. Nietzsche classifies metaphysical realists as either cognitivists or non-cognigtivists in connection to the ability and knowledge of the 'actual' world. Nietzsche performs this classification for the purpose of stressing the skepticism that emanates from extra-perspectival epistemology, which is a source of historical information to metaphysical realism.

Nietzsche's perspectivalism is evident in his literature, for example, while applying a visual metaphor, Nietzsche offers a definition of cognitive perspectives creating knowledge of the 'manifestation of things' and 'human involvement' in relation the emergence of things. The assertions of Nietzsche are that our viewpoint acts as control tools of inquiry emanating from our values and interests. He acknowledges the fact that philosophy has ignored the presence of institutions which has transformed the values and thoughts of people. Nietzsche also believes that the answer to important questions is the understanding of human psychology by considering the psychological factors that emerge. Nietzsche asserts that people's method of understanding the world emanates from their instincts. In his assertions that truths are justified from a particular perspective, Nietzsche, refutes the idea of reprimanding our perspectival truths to that less than objective.

Nietzsche's argument creates the understanding that all language is rhetorical. The Burk's conception helps in explaining the implicitness of the assertions. For example, the idea of Terministic screen asserts that every person possess his own symbol in which one interprets the world. The concept of the terministic screen seems to offer a methodology of comprehending rhetoric theory just like the one exemplified by Nietzsche. Burke's concept conveys the information of the correlation that exists between language and ideology. Burk believes that language does not replicate reality but rather a choice of reality and must operate as a deflection of reality. Nietzsche believes that truths are illusions, and that people have forgotten that truths are damaged metaphors, lacking a sensory impact. He symbolizes truths to a coin which has lost value. Mcgee embraces the phenomenon that people in separation have a different way of thought as compared to those in a group. Mcgee further explains this concept by asserting that the possibility of 'mind' only exists in ones 'qua individual'. This creates a need for the description of collectiveness by employing the terms of individuals agency.

Question 3

Marx theory of materialism entails the dominance of economic forces in social transformation throughout history. The economic forces are to change the world to the extent that it embraces communism. The materialistic theory suggests that the change that man makes to the world is possible through the use of shovels, picks diggers and other important tools, and not via the concept of thought and conceptualization. Materialism concentrates on material world and, therefore, avoids the subject that would be useful in shaping the world into objects. It is possible to interlink theory with practice since; Marxist theory understands the significance of humans. The concentration in theory thus, does not allow Marx to say much about language and its significance as material practice.

In the contrary, it is Burk who recognizes language as material practice as seen in his description of language as symbolic action. Burke asserts that language is naturally convincing due to the condition that symbolic acts have the ability to 'do things' as well as 'say things'. Burke portrays man as a 'symbol-using animal'; he gives an example of a trapped bird in a room with open windows simply because the intuition of the… READ MORE

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