[Air-L] history of Plato's Phaedrus as example of moral / media panic?

[Thomas Ball]

Dr Ess-
   This is a challenging query. One thing that might help orient potential
respondents would be for you to cite one or two articles exemplifying
"moral / media panics that
consistently invoke Plato's _myth_ of the invention of writing."
   As it is, we're left guessing what you have in mind.
Thank you,
Best regards,
Thomas

On Wed, Apr 24, 2019 at 12:37 PM Charles M. Ess <c.m.ess at media.uio.no>
wrote:

> Dear AoIRists,
>
> Please be kind and patient with me, recalling that my formal academic
> training was in history of philosophy, German literature, and ancient
> Greek.  I am comparatively still a little wet around the ears with
> regard to media and communication studies - or so it seems in this
> instance.
>
> I keep encountering discussions of moral / media panics that
> consistently invoke Plato's _myth_ of the invention of writing.
>
> This seemingly standard invocation puzzles me greatly for a long list of
> reasons.  I include a short list below for anyone with time and interest
> in looking them over.
>
> The upshot is that I'm left wondering: who - and when - introduced what
> has apparently become received tradition in these domains that the
> mythos (see "2" below) of the invention of writing in the Phaedrus is a
> prime or supportive example moral or media panic?
>
> This is, as they say in administration-speak, an appreciative inquiry.
> I'm genuinely curious for the sake of better understanding how this
> trope first appeared, etc - as well as genuine worried that I may have
> somehow missed something that is considered elementary and obvious for
> those of you with academic training more directly within media and
> communication studies.
>
> Many thanks in advance for any enlightenment and eludation!
> best,
> - charles ess
>
> PS: The short list includes:
> 1) the account is taken (bloody and screaming) out of the context of the
> larger dialogue in the Phaedrus. When read within the larger context -
> beginning with (the young) Phaedrus' effort to impress (perhaps seduce)
> Socrates by memorizing a speech he has copied down on a scroll and
> initially tries to hide from Socrates - the mythos works much more
> immediately as a lightly veiled (and hence, pedagogically speaking,
> likely more successful) chastisement of Phaedrus' efforts at
> dissimulation.  By no means a wholesale critique of writing per se.
> 2) The account is explicitly delivered as a _mythos_ - too easily
> translated as a "myth." But: a _mythos_ in Plato is a technical /
> philosophical form, going well beyond and in some ways directly
> contradicting more everyday notions of "myth" as a false story; a mythos
> is specifically an _oral_ story, with its own set of distinctive
> strengths and limitations. It is often used in Plato when interlocutors,
> attempting to pursue a reasoned argument (logos), come to an impass.
> The relation between mythos and logos is hence often complementary, not
> contradictory.
> 3) It would seem very odd for an author of multiple dialogues, of
> sometimes staggering sophistication and literary nuance, to sincerely
> believe that writing is somehow an entirely suspect technology.
> Different from orality, certainly, as is suggested by the consistent
> presentation of Socrates as an oral teacher, the careful use of mythos
> vs. logos, etc. - but hardly an example of media / moral panic.
> And so on.
> Again: what am I missing?
>
> Again, many thanks,
> - c.
> --
> Professor in Media Studies
> Department of Media and Communication
> University of Oslo
> <http://www.hf.uio.no/imk/english/people/aca/charlees/index.html>
>
> Postboks 1093
> Blindern 0317
> Oslo, Norway
> c.m.ess at media.uio.no
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