In Phaedrus, Socrates makes a speech in response to the speech that Phaedrus read to him from Lysias. Both speeches were concerning lovers and non-lovers, and which was superior and inferior to the other. Both speeches basically relayed the message that non-lovers are superior to lovers because lovers are crazy. However, as he later confessed, Socrates did not actually believe that lovers are inferior to non-lovers. He then gave a second speech advocating this, and both men agreed that the second speech was much greater than the first.
This carries a powerful message to rhetors/writers. You may very well be able to compose a beautiful piece of writing full of notions that you don't advocate or believe in. But what will that get you? Maybe a couple of bucks?
One of the most challenging aspects that I have found in trying to be a writer, is figuring out exactly what it is that I want to say. And Socrates makes it clear in Phaedrus, that must come first if you are to make a piece of art. But how do you know what you want to say?
This topic leads inevitably into the question of knowledge and what part it plays in composing a piece of writing. Socrates tells us that we must be completely knowledgeable on the subject we write about, and although Phaedrus does not agree at first, using the infamous Socratic method, Socrates convinces him of it.
When writing about certain topics, I think it is possible to be sufficiently knowledgeable. Such topics include matters of fact, rather than matter still under debate. As for the matters that are, as of now, unsettled, it is not so easy to be all-knowing. Absolute truth, a hot topic in ancient Athens, is a little hard to come by, and so, I think it is near impossible to meet Socrates's standards.
I too often feel this way when I am writing. What do I write? I feel that it is the "million dollar question" for most writers but I also feel that it is what makes being a writer both thrilling and therapeutic. Thrilling because there is no specific set way of how to write what you feel, the floor is yours and no one can tell you if its wrong or write. Therapeutic because when you don't know what to write, you start spewing ideas, and piece by piece yo string each one together into a thought you never knew you had before. To me, that is very powerful.
ReplyDeleteAs students we are always writing academically. being graded on each and every move we make with our words so its only natural that we ask ourselves "what the hell do I write?!" We easily forget that writing is an art form and it is meant to be creative and expressive at times, thinking about what our audience will grade us whether the audience is the teacher or our fellow classmates. Writing independently is the only cure for the writers anxiety, and through that I have found my voice. It it my only way of asking my self "what do I write?" and answering "who cares!"
I think that if we knew what truth really was, we wouldn't have to ask; which is why I have such a hard time with how much Athens debates that issue. Even if there was an entire, supreme, ABSOLUTE truth, it would still differ for everyone; my truth is not the same as your truth, etc. And we just continue to spin circles arguing about it, which is exhausting and somehow entirely fitting when you apply the phrase, "We never learn" to it.
ReplyDeleteBut I do agree that it is possible to be sufficiently knowledgeable in a subject, and to be able to speak well about that said subject. But then you always meet that person who knows more than you about that subject, and THAT person has someone else who knows more than them about that subject - different truths, etc. We end up in that same circle again.
I'd like to have tea with Socrates.