Poetología, persuasión y conocimiento en Platón

Abstract

The purpose of this article is (i) to show that in the dialogues some dramatic details often advance the philosophical argument (and its understanding) and that (ii) the kind of explanation that the characters provide is always given against a particular dramatic background that is not trivial. On the side of the "poetological" consideration, I will briefly focus on the episode of the cicadas in the Phaedrus and try to show how this episode serves as an introduction to the philosophical debate on persuasion and the value of knowledge and truth for a correct persuasive procedure. I will argue that Plato is interested not only in examining the conditions of legitimate persuasive discourse, but also in showing that not any kind of discourse is persuasive to any person. Although in his view "true" rhetoric is identified with dialectic, Plato is aware that rhetoric (and thus persuasion), as it was understood in public discourse, may be more "practical" than dialectic, as Plato himself understands it (in the Phaedrus and other dialogues).