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Dialectic
Sophists were itinerant teachers common in Greece in the fourth and fifth centuries B.C. Though sophists could be hired to teach aristocratic young men a variety of subjects, rhetoric was the most common area of expertise. There was a stigma attached to sophists as peddlers of wisdom, not legitimate educators; Phaedrus remarks that the speechwriters of the day, like Lysias, feared being dismissed as mere “sophists.”
Sophists Quotes in Phaedrus
The Phaedrus quotes below are all either spoken by Sophists or refer to Sophists. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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257c-274a Quotes
Socrates: Well then, for things that are going to be said well, and beautifully, mustn’t there be knowledge in the mind of the speaker of the truth about whatever he means to speak of?
Phaedrus: What I have heard about this, my dear Socrates, is that there is no necessity for the man who means to be an orator to understand what is really just but only what would appear so to the majority of those who will give judgement; and not what is really good or beautiful but whatever will appear so; because persuasion comes from that and not from the truth.
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At this point in Phaedrus, the action shifts from speeches on love to what has been Socrates’s overriding concern—what makes for good speaking versus bad. He engages in a dialogue with Phaedrus on the subject, hoping to guide the enthusiastic young man beyond his superficial fondness for flashy oratory toward a more profound understanding of how rhetoric works. Socrates suggests that in order to speak well, one must know the truth of his subject; however, Phaedrus contends that truth is secondary—it’s more important that the speaker be persuasive, making his points appear beautiful, regardless of whether they’re good and beautiful Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor aspe
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Sophists Term Timeline in Phaedrus
The timeline below shows where the term Sophists appears in Phaedrus. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
257c-274a
...someone disparaging Lysias as a “speech-writer,” and that writers of speeches fear being dismissed as “sophists” by posterity. However, Socrates points out that some people crave recognition as speech-writers even in...
(full context)
