The refutative practice as philosophical rhetoric in Plato's Phaedrus

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to problematize some issues concerning the structure and the dialogue form of Platonic philosophy based on the analysis of the role played by refutation (élenkhos) and rhetorical dimension in Plato's Phaedrus. It is, therefore, an investigation that recognizes its hermeneutical limits and, at the same time, maintains the prerogative to raise some possible readings about the constant ágon between the form of exposition of the arguments and the transmission of propositional content within the Platonic philosophy.