Abstract

This study reexamines Plato's conception of rhetoric in his dialogue Phaedrus. Plato's "prolegomena" to a true art of rhetoric, given at 270b--272b, which calls for a rhetorical "psychology," has not been adequately understood. In this study I explicate the prolegomena by investigating Plato's discussions of "soul-parts" and "soul-types," given in the Phaedrus and in the Republic, and Plato's dramatic presentation of his characters in the Phaedrus and in the Symposium . ;I argue that the psychology central to Plato's ideal rhetoric is a "politico-erotic psychology," in which types of souls and speech are related to types of political regimes and erotic dispositions. Further, I contend that Plato did not intend his ideal rhetoric to achieve the status of an art , but rather to serve as a basis for critique. ;The critical/cultural movement in rhetorical studies has privileged the sophists over Plato. I conclude this study by arguing that Plato has been misunderstood, and that rhetoricians in the discipline of Communication should seek to recuperate a literary, "non-doctrinaire," Plato