HeyJaredThe Plato Paradigm
Here I read through Platonic dialogues, translating and commenting on the Greek text as I go.The resulting analyses may be found at:https://theplatoparadigm.com
- Indexed episodes, last 90 days
- 11
- Latest publication
- Sep 11, 2026
- Audience
- Checking…
- Earliest in this view
- Jul 3, 2026
Latest episodes
0267 Menexenus 236b (opens the original)
Read excerpt
Despite what Socrates has told Menexenus about the training orators have in learning how to put together a funeral speech appropriate to the occasion, he now claims that Aspasia beat into him verbaitm the funeral speech she would expect to be delivered by whoever the council finally chooses. Here I read through Platonic dialogues, translating and commenting on the Greek text as I go. The resulting analyses may be found at: https://theplatoparadigm.com
0266 Menexenus 236a (opens the original)
Read excerpt
Menexenus might have been expected to ask about the principles of composing a speech, yet he is still interested in a particular speech and the author of that speech. I continue my musings on Aspasia and her significance in this dialogue. Here I read through Platonic dialogues, translating and commenting on the Greek text as I go. The resulting analyses may be found at: https://theplatoparadigm.com
0265 Menexenus 235d (opens the original)
Read excerpt
It's not too hard to appear to be a good speaker when you are praising your own people. If you've been taught, as Socrates has been, by such an outstanding teacher of rhetoric as the escort-girl Aspasia, you will be unstoppable. Here I read through Platonic dialogues, translating and commenting on the Greek text as I go. The resulting analyses may be found at: https://theplatoparadigm.com
0264 Menexenus 235b (opens the original)
Read excerpt
Socrates completes his rhetorical account of the rhetorical aim of public eulogy. Menexenus appears to brush it off, and expresses a naive concern that the person to be chosen to deliver the eulogy won't have time to prepare. Socrates sets about explaining to him the facts of life. Here I read through Platonic dialogues, translating and commenting on the Greek text as I go. The resulting analyses may be found at: https://theplatoparadigm.com
0263 Menexenus 234c (opens the original)
Read excerpt
In an apparent reaction to the importance Menexenus attaches to the choice of eulogist, Socrates exclaims how in many places dying in war is a fine thing, and proceeds to deliver a lengthy sentence supposedly explaining why this is so. The reasons he give present the eulogy as a well-rehearsed spell cast over the listeners to divorce them from reality and make them feel that the situation is much better than it is, and that the soldiers died for a good cause. Here I read through Platonic dialogu
Publishing over time
Last 90 days. Choose a month to open its work.
Recurring subjects
Named in the text we hold. One piece can cover several.
Audience
No verified audience measurement yet.
About this data
Counts cover the work we have indexed. Tone needs enough text and a confident classification. Excerpts and episode notes are not full articles or transcripts.
Identity or attribution wrong? Suggest a correction.