2010 - Jefferson Scholars Foundation

jefferson scholars foundation 2010
emerges as an inherently playful
activity. Accepting this proposition
offers the opportunity to
examine musical creation from a
new perspective. The later part of
the previous century witnessed
the development of a rich body of
literature on human play. Thinkers
like Johan Huizinga, Roger Caillois,
Gregory Bateson, and Brian
Sutton-Smith (to name only a
few) posited intricate theories
about the mechanisms and meanings
of play. Examining how these
theories are reflected in the act of
composition presents new methods
for composers, analysts, and
listeners to understand musical
creation and relate to its results.
stacie l.
thyrion
The pedagogical Value of
plato’s phaedrus
Plato’s Phaedrus is a curiously selfcritical
work. In this middle-period
dialogue of Plato, Socrates suggests
that all compositions should
be put together like a living
creature, with a head, middle, and
extremities all fitting each other
and the whole. In spite of this the
Phaedrus appears to have two
disjointed halves: the first a series
of three speeches about love, and
the second a dialectic exchange
about the art of good rhetoric. In
the final pages of the dialogue
Socrates also famously criticizes
Stacie Thyrion, the Jefferson Scholars Foundation Fellow (Philosophy), discusses Plato’s Phaedrus.
writing, for causing forgetfulness
in the writer, for creating a false
appearance of wisdom in the
reader, and for being unable to
respond to questions or criticisms.
He presents in contrast a truer
form of writing: writing directly
on the soul of a student through
philosophic dialogue. Readers
have wondered since antiquity
whether Plato meant to undermine
seriously his written works
with these self-criticisms. In this
talk I use the standards of good
composition presented within the
work to assess the value of the
Phaedrus itself. How does Plato’s
written philosophy measure up
to these standards? Did Plato
believe his written philosophy
could, like the dialectic method
of his teacher Socrates, lead a
reader to acquire knowledge? We
might even attack a more difficult
question: Did Plato intend for his
dialogues to be published outside
the Academy?
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