Summary Of Phaedrus A Book About Communicating An Argument

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Lauren Castaner Communication A02 28 September 2012 Phaedrus A Book About Communicating an Argument Phaedrus by Plato starts with a meeting between Socrates and Phaedrus in Athens. They are discussing a speech Phaedrus heard earlier that morning and copied down. Phaedrus then goes on to repeat the speech to Socrates, who criticizes it in response stating that there is not enough content and that better speeches were probably made elsewhere. This is the starting point of the argument about the difference between good speeches vs. bad speech and the oral word vs. the written word. This discussion of rhetoric and writing was such a significant contribution to the topic that it is still being taught today. Socrates discusses the relationship of good speeches and bad speeches in respect to the persuasiveness of the speech. He does this by acknowledging that what makes a good agreement or speech is the layout of it.…show more content…
the oral argument. He explains that both methods have different ways of communicating ideas to an audience, speech as the notable form in ancient Greece, where only philosophers were basically allowed an opinion on a subject. And writing as a new media where it can be directed to a certain audience instead of everybody and it can help lessen miscommunication. It does come across that Socrates prefers one, speech, over the other but regardless in today’s time written arguments is the more popular media. As stated above many of the rhetoric tools that we use today was also used back in Socrates time. Those fundamental tools being Pathos, Ethos, and Logos and they were used on how to form a good argument. While the connection between a communicator, the speaker, and his audience has changed overtime by use of different media, going from oral arguments to more written arguments, the one thing that hasn’t changed is the basic skills of communication and how it is used to persuade

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