Table of Contents
Phaedrus, named after an Ancient Greek Sophist who appears in Plato’s Socratic dialogue Phaedrus, is the name by which the narrator refers to the consciousness that once occupied his body.
Who is Phaedrus in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle?
In Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Phaedrus was a gifted child who enrolled in college at 15 to study science. He found himself haunted by philosophical questions and eventually flunked out. After a stint in the army, he returned to college to study philosophy.
Was Phaedrus a real person?
444 – 393 BC), was an ancient Athenian aristocrat associated with the inner-circle of the philosopher Socrates. He was indicted in the profanation of the Eleusinian Mysteries in 415 during the Peloponnesian War, causing him to flee Athens. He is best remembered for his depiction in the dialogues of Plato.
What is true Phaedrus?
The Phaedrus (/ˈfiːdrəs/; Greek: Φαῖδρος, translit. Phaidros), written by Plato, is a dialogue between Plato’s protagonist, Socrates, and Phaedrus, an interlocutor in several dialogues. The Phaedrus was presumably composed around 370 BCE, about the same time as Plato’s Republic and Symposium.
Does Phaedrus mean wolf?
So I plucked the name of the main character, “Phaedrus” out of the book. The name, according to the book, at the time, meant “wolf” which as a young twenty-something military person sounded appealing.”.
Who is Pirsig’s Phaedrus?
Phaedrus was a highly analytical academic prodigy who grew disenchanted with the western intellectual tradition’s limited notion of reason. While teaching English at Montana State University in Bozeman, he begins to develop a philosophy that revolves around a concept he calls Quality.
What happened to Robert Pirsig?
Pirsig died aged 88, at his home in South Berwick, Maine, on April 24, 2017, after a period of failing health.
What is a Chautauqua in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance?
What are chautauquas and why does Robert Pirsig incorporate them into his book? The chautauqua meaning in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is a group of philosophical ideas that are woven into the narrative. They are lessons about life and its meaning and fall into a few major categories.
Who wrote the book Phaedrus?
Plato.
What is the difference between Socrates first and second speech in the Phaedrus?
This speech is made up of two unequal parts : a first one sets the context of the speech, the method to be used, and proceeds to give a definition of what the speech is about, namely love ; a second one investigates the effects of love on the beloved to show how awful they are in all respects.
What is right and wrong Phaedrus?
And what is not good— Need we ask anyone to tell us these things?”.
What is the theme of Phaedrus?
Plato’s Phaedrus. The central theme of this dialogue is Eros. The problem of love serves as the provocation for the speeches, the content of the speeches and the reflection upon speech as a whole.
How does Phaedrus define love?
Phaedrus asserts that both gods and humans regard Love as great and awesome, for many reasons. As Love is the oldest, Phaedrus suggests, he confers the greatest benefits. No young man could derive greater benefit than from a good lover, and no lover could derive greater benefit than from a young loved one.
What is the purpose of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance?
What Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance tells us is that we won’t get to the truth about life through pursuing answers through the rational mind only. The narrator hungered for a rational explanation for everything, but in the end found that both science and philosophy are just maps of the truth.
How does Pirsig introduce and develop the character of Phaedrus?
Pirsig introduces Phaedrus slowly and with great trepidation. This ghost haunts Pirsig, and reminds him of what he could become again. When Pirsig and Chris climb the mountain, for example, Pirsig decides against reaching the summit. He tells Chris he fears a rock-slide, and to some extent, he does.
What is the ghost of rationality?
This is the ghost of normal everyday assumptions which declares that the ultimate purpose of life, which is to keep alive, is impossible, but that this is the ultimate purpose of life anyway, so that great minds struggle to cure diseases so that people may live longer, but only madmen ask why.
What is Pirsig’s philosophy on life?
The past exists only in our memories, the future only in our plans. The present is our only reality. The tree that you are aware of intellectually, because of the small time lag, is always in the past and therefore is always unreal. Any intellectually conceived object is always in the past and therefore unreal.
Who wrote the book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance?
Author Robert Pirsig works on a motorcycle in 1975. Zen was published in 1974, after being rejected by 121 publishing houses.
How true is Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance?
According to Edward Abbey, the book is a fictionalized autobiography of a 17-day journey that Pirsig made on a motorcycle from Minnesota to Northern California along with his son Chris. The story of this journey is recounted in a first-person narrative, although the author is not identified.
What motorcycle is in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance?
Pirsig’s 1966 Honda Super Hawk motorcycle featured in his book, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values. Pirsig’s book, originally published by William Morrow in 1974, has sold more than 5 million copies and has been translated into 27 languages.
What does the name Chautauqua mean?
“Chautauqua” is an Iroquois word with multiple meanings, including “a bag tied in the middle” or “two moccasins tied together.” The word describes the shape of Chautauqua Lake, located in southwest New York, which was the setting for the Chautauqua Institution, the first educational assembly in what became a.
What is Pirsig’s description of Chautauquas?
In this Chautauqua I would like not to cut any new channels of consciousness but simply dig deeper into old ones that have become silted in with the debris of thoughts grown stale and platitudes too often repeated.
When was Phaedrus born?
Phaedrus, (born c. 15 bc, Thrace—died ad 50, Italy), Roman fabulist, the first writer to Latinize whole books of fables, producing free versions in iambic metre of Greek prose fables then circulating under the name of Aesop.
What does Phaedrus say about rhetoric?
The common assumption about rhetoric, Phaedrus tells Socrates, is that orators do not need to know the truth about the case they are pleading, but aim only to persuade their listeners.
Who is Pausanias symposium?
Pausanias (/pɔːˈseɪniəs/; Greek: Παυσανίας; fl. c. 420 BC) was an ancient Athenian of the deme Kerameis, who was the lover of the poet Agathon. Pausanias appears briefly in two other Socratic dialogues, Plato’s Protagoras and Xenophon’s Symposium.
