Pastoral Places and the City: Environmental Rhetoric in Plato’s <i>Phaedrus</i>
Historically, the notion of nature or the place outside the city in <i>Phaedrus</i> has been read as a proto-pastoral dialogue. If we accept this reading of Plato’s dialogue, Phaedrus hierarchizes the landscape where the city is perceived as superior to the noncity. However, I argue that...
Saved in:
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
MDPI AG
2025-01-01
|
| Series: | Humanities |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0787/14/1/7 |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1832588353226145792 |
|---|---|
| author | Jack Love |
| author_facet | Jack Love |
| author_sort | Jack Love |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Historically, the notion of nature or the place outside the city in <i>Phaedrus</i> has been read as a proto-pastoral dialogue. If we accept this reading of Plato’s dialogue, Phaedrus hierarchizes the landscape where the city is perceived as superior to the noncity. However, I argue that Plato offers an alternative in Phaedrus that opposes the country–city hierarchized binary. Rather than seeing the natural world as a starting place for intellectual knowledge, Plato refuses the pastoral impulse that projects a construction of nature in Phaedrus. Instead, he values the noncity as any other place where individuals can come together in a dialectical fashion to ascertain truth. Indeed, Socrates’ orientation toward the setting in Phaedrus suggests that he is practicing a rhetoric of immersion in the ambient nonhuman place around him before attempting to project meaning onto it. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-7ecc5f0076d94626aead76b3fdbe08aa |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2076-0787 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Humanities |
| spelling | doaj-art-7ecc5f0076d94626aead76b3fdbe08aa2025-01-24T13:34:49ZengMDPI AGHumanities2076-07872025-01-01141710.3390/h14010007Pastoral Places and the City: Environmental Rhetoric in Plato’s <i>Phaedrus</i>Jack Love0Department of English, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77840, USAHistorically, the notion of nature or the place outside the city in <i>Phaedrus</i> has been read as a proto-pastoral dialogue. If we accept this reading of Plato’s dialogue, Phaedrus hierarchizes the landscape where the city is perceived as superior to the noncity. However, I argue that Plato offers an alternative in Phaedrus that opposes the country–city hierarchized binary. Rather than seeing the natural world as a starting place for intellectual knowledge, Plato refuses the pastoral impulse that projects a construction of nature in Phaedrus. Instead, he values the noncity as any other place where individuals can come together in a dialectical fashion to ascertain truth. Indeed, Socrates’ orientation toward the setting in Phaedrus suggests that he is practicing a rhetoric of immersion in the ambient nonhuman place around him before attempting to project meaning onto it.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0787/14/1/7PhaedrusPlatoSocratesenvironmentalismrhetoricpastoralism |
| spellingShingle | Jack Love Pastoral Places and the City: Environmental Rhetoric in Plato’s <i>Phaedrus</i> Humanities Phaedrus Plato Socrates environmentalism rhetoric pastoralism |
| title | Pastoral Places and the City: Environmental Rhetoric in Plato’s <i>Phaedrus</i> |
| title_full | Pastoral Places and the City: Environmental Rhetoric in Plato’s <i>Phaedrus</i> |
| title_fullStr | Pastoral Places and the City: Environmental Rhetoric in Plato’s <i>Phaedrus</i> |
| title_full_unstemmed | Pastoral Places and the City: Environmental Rhetoric in Plato’s <i>Phaedrus</i> |
| title_short | Pastoral Places and the City: Environmental Rhetoric in Plato’s <i>Phaedrus</i> |
| title_sort | pastoral places and the city environmental rhetoric in plato s i phaedrus i |
| topic | Phaedrus Plato Socrates environmentalism rhetoric pastoralism |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0787/14/1/7 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT jacklove pastoralplacesandthecityenvironmentalrhetoricinplatosiphaedrusi |