Plato the Second Time Around

I remember reading Plato’s Phaedrus a year ago. I thought I had a good basic understanding of the main ideas expressed in the text. After reading Phaedrus this semester my perception of the text has shifted radically. My first introduction to Plato was during a rhetoric course; my readings of Plato were paired with Quintilian and Aristotle. This semester I read Plato alongside writers like Baron, Reddick and Malcolm X. These writers wrote in a time very different from Plato’s, but reading the Phaedrus in this context showed me how well Platonic ideas apply to modern theories.  In the Phaedrus we read:

 And every word, when once it was written, is bandied about, alike among those who understand and those who have no interest in it, and it knows not to whom to speak or not to speak; when ill-treated or unjustly reviled it always needs its father to help; for it has no power to protect itself or help itself” (Plato, 3).

 This passage of the Phaedrus is one example of Plato expressing his opinion against the transition from speech to a written form. Writing makes information available to a larger audience and Plato argues that this audience is not equipped with the background necessary to understand the information how the author intended. There are two texts from this semester that seem to speak to, or answer questions that were also addressed in the Phaedrus.

In the article English Expository Discourse written by R.J. Reddick in 1992, Reddick attempts to define the characteristics of expository writing. In the course of his larger discussion he provides a theory describing how readers interpret information. Reddick writes that “If we do not occupy the intellectual space as [the author], the assumptions we bring to her Argument will come from some other space, and those assumptions will transform that Argument into something she may not recognize as hers” (Reddick, 221).

 In the Phaedrus, Plato admits that the written word is extremely accessible; this level of accessibility leaves writing vulnerable to misinterpretation. The passage from the Reddick article also acknowledges the possibility of reading a written work, and coming to a different conclusion than the author intended. Both Plato and Reddick understand that readers are generally diverse; this diversity can lead to different interpretations of a single text.

 The Malcolm X text, Learning to Read illustrates the relationship between reader/interpreter and text. Throughout Learning to Read, Malcolm X reflects on his time in prison and explains how his time in prison provided him with an opportunity to read a variety of books. As a reader, Malcolm X’s personal experiences and other outside influences how he interprets different texts. Malcolm writes: “The 
teachings 
of 
Mr.
Muhammad 
stressed 
how 
history 
had 
been
“whitened”—when 
white 
me 
had 
written 
history 
books,the 
black 
man 
simply
 had 
been 
left
 out” and “I
hat I had 
never
forgotten 
how 
when 
my 
class, me 
and 
all 
of 
those 
whites, had 
studied
 seventh‐grade 
United 
States 
history 
back
 in 
Mason,
the 
history 
of 
the 
Negro 
had 
been
 covered 
in 
one 
paragraph” (Malcolm X, 3). His experience a Black man influences how he interprets the text.

For example when he learns about genetics we read: “Mr.
Muhammad’s how the white man had been created led me to Findings in Genetics by Gregor Mendel…Reading it over and over, especially certain sections, helped me understand that if you started with a black man, a white man could be produced” (Malcolm X, 3). It is unlikely that Gregor Mendel predicted Malcolm X using his text to interrogate questions surrounding race.

 My exposure to Plato influenced my interpretation of other texts we read in this course. My personal experience in this class is a great example of a reader bringing their own assumptions to a text in order to derive meaning. Are there any texts from this semester that helped increase your understanding of other reading