According to the scholars in the radio shows I listened to yesterday (see this post and this post), Plato was against rhetoric in most of his writings (something to do with an eloquent speaker spouting lies could be more persuasive than an inelegant speaker telling ‘truth’). However, in Phaedrus¹, Socrates describes how rhetoric can be used to get at truth, and Plato’s realisation is that rhetoric is merely a tool; it’s how it is used, and for what, that is important. Socrates talks of the soul’s involvement in rhetoric. I have a sense of the meaning of this (for me it would more in line with integrity than ‘soul’), although I disagree with the use of “soul”; Socrate’s “soul” is one that I imagine to have wings in order to rise up to peer at the gods and at love that is less fleeting than earthly desire. It surprises me that one who is so interested in truth should be able to believe, unquestioningly, in gods.
Truth is a slippery agent, anyhow, and I listened to another of Melvyn Bragg’s radio shows, that invite scholars to make theoretical discussions of such subjects more accessible to the layman, regarding it. I’m going to listen to it again, though, because I found some of the concepts tricky to get my head around. I also listened to one about solitude and the different attitudes towards it that have been recorded. There’s Jesus, who, once baptised, went into the desert for forty days and nights; Thoreau, who built a cabin a mile or so from ‘civilisation’ and lived simply with only his own thoughts for verbal company; who else? I don’t remember specific names (I think I might listen to that show again too) but I remember the panel guests concluding that solitude and community link together. It seems that if one has something worthwhile to contemplate during periods of (sometimes enforced) solitude, one may produce something (writing, perhaps) of value to humanity or, at the very least, have some interesting conversations when one returns to community.
It seems that solitude and some socialising or communing are important in each person’s life. How does one know how much one needs of each? There are particular people I love spending time with. We talk about a range of subjects and they’ll often introduce aspects I had not thought about before. When we separate I’m left with these aspects, which I can think about and research further, which creates even more food for thought. I miss these people when they’re not with me, yet the solitude gives me room to think and research and write and walk.
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Julia Fry - Major Project - 2015 