Nahbjuwet363

Nahbjuwet363 t1_j0m4m8m wrote

You could do much worse than just starting with this specific dialogue, the Phaedrus. I would pick up a penguin or other paperback with a good introduction and editorial features. The fun and possibly surprising thing to keep in mind is that these aren’t really daunting works at all: they are dialogues with many familiar characteristics of literary works. Everything in them is worth paying attention to: set, setting, language, irony, character. They are sometimes even funny. I find them incredibly enjoyable to read and much more interesting and elusive than their reputation might suggest.

12

Nahbjuwet363 t1_j0kvnwf wrote

Same misreading of Plato found in her prior attempts to write about it. Can’t even tell us the name of the dialog. When a student writes that Plato condemns writing in the Phaedrus I know they didn’t even read the dialog. When a student writes that Thoth speaks for Plato I know they didn’t come to discussion (and didn’t read the dialog). But when a digital studies celebrity writes it they are doing philosophy in the New York Times.

89