In the early nineteenth century, the German scholar Friedrich Schleiermacher supposed that the Phaedrus was Plato’s first work, and one that prefigured, or even encapsulated, the major com-ponents of the entire corpus. No one believes that today — neither that the Phaedrus is the first dialogue (or even particularly early), nor that it intends to encapsulate the corpus — but it is nonetheless striking how many elements of the Phaedrus echo or are seemingly in dialogue (as it were) with other Platonic works.

In this course, we will explore certain key aspects of the Platonic corpus by working out from the Phaedrus. After reading each segment of the Phaedrus, we will pause to read other Platonic works that seem to act as intertexts to this section, and at times we will explore beyond the corpus as well. Our goal will be to build towards a rich and informed interpretation, or rather set of interpretations, of the Phaedrus. Both at beginning and end of the course, we will focus in particular on that most famous of passages from the Phaedrus, in which Plato, in this written work, appears to condemn the written word.

We will read the entirety of the Phaedrus in Greek; other dialogues will be read in entirety in translation, with critical sections read in the Greek. (For Greek readings in the external dialogues, there will be some flexibility to accommodate the different levels of expertise in the class.) We will routinely write brief “first thoughts on” papers, that will explore in some detail the relationship between Phaedrus and other works.

Course overview (tentative, and subject to revision): (Segment 1) Phaedrus: prologue. External texts: Parmenides, Parmenides, Republic I. (Segment 2) Phaedrus: Lysias’ speech on Eros, first interlude, Socrates’ first speech on Eros. External text: Gorgias, Helen. (Segment 3) Phaedrus: second interlude, Socrates’ great speech on Eros, the Palinode. External text: Symposium. (Segment 4) Phaedrus: inquiry on good and bad speaking, and the art of rhetoric. External texts: Ion, Gorgias. (Segment 5) Phaedrus: rhetoric and human psychology. External text: Republic IV. (Segment 6) Phaedrus: inquiry into the written word. External texts: Seventh Letter, Meno. (Segment 7) External text: Isocrates, Against the Sophists.