Where speech works
PhaedrusThose are the arguments we need, Socrates. Bring them here and examine what they say, and how.
SocratesStep up, you fine creatures, and persuade Phaedrus, father of fine children, that until he has studied philosophy as he should, he will never speak adequately on any subject. Now let Phaedrus answer.
PhaedrusAsk away.
SocratesIs rhetoric, taken as a whole, not an art of leading souls through speech? Not only in the courts and other public gatherings, but also in private conversation? The same art concerns small matters and great, and its proper practice is no more honourable in serious matters than in trivial ones. Or is that not what you have heard?
PhaedrusNo, by Zeus, not quite. I have heard of speaking and writing with art chiefly in lawsuits, and also in addresses to the people. I have heard of nothing beyond that.
SocratesHave you heard only of Nestor’s and Odysseus’ arts of speech, written in their leisure at Troy, and nothing of Palamedes’?
PhaedrusBy Zeus, I have not heard of Nestor’s either—unless you are making Gorgias into some sort of Nestor, and Thrasymachus and Theodorus into Odysseus.