Abstract

This dissertation explores Plato's Phaedrus through the paradigm of a modern jury trial. In so doing the characters of the Phaedrus are placed in the courtroom, standing at the bar in the following manner: Lysias becomes the prosecutor, trying the lover on the charges of irrationality and being a danger to the beloved; Socrates is the defense attorney, simultaneously protecting the lover and himself; Phaedrus serves the dual roles of witness to Lysias' speech and juror faced with the task of deciding the fate of the lover in the polis. ;Such an analogy allows for a deep consideration of the relationship between rhetoric and philosophy as well as of the importance of knowing one's audience for the persuasion of that audience. Integral to this study is the role of discourse as a method for communication and the use of the story as its technique. Plato wrote dialogues and trials are in a very real sense dialogues--this analogy explores the necessity of discourse in man's search for truth and, as a testament to that search, his life in the polis