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

[AMPARO LASEN DIAZ]

Dear Charles and Aoir list,

I think this relates to the link between writing and memory and Plato's
account of Socrate's consideration of writing as pharmakon, a greek term
meaning remedy and poison. So for instance, writing could allow for
preparing speeches, and being persuasive, beyond the power of one's own
memory, thus being a remedy for the limitations of our capacity to
memorize. But at the same time if we rely on writing and stop memorizing,
people, specially young learners could lose or reduce the capacity of their
memory. Derrida aldo deploys the idea of writing as pharmakon. The moral
panic not only relates to losing the training of memory, but also to the
moral value Socrates and Plato give to memory and to learning by memory,
which will aldo be lost if young pupils rely mainly on   writing  instead
of memory and orality. This reflection and considerations are places in
Socrate's and Plato's critique of sofistes, a kind of professional writers
producing speeches and persuasive arguments, acused of not being guided by
the pursuit of truth  but by spurious or manipulative interests

Hope it could help, just a quick answer from my memories of reading that
text.

All the best

Amparo Lasen



El mié., 24 abr. 2019 18:38, Charles M. Ess <c.m.ess at media.uio.no> escribió:

> 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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