EDWARD'S LECTURE NOTES:
More notes at http://tanguay.info/learntracker
C O U R S E 
Reason and Persuasion Through Plato's Dialogues
John Holbo, National University of Singapore
https://www.coursera.org/course/reasonandpersuasion
C O U R S E   L E C T U R E 
Alcibiades on Socrates
Notes taken on May 18, 2015 by Edward Tanguay
Symposium (Συμπόσιον)
a Greek drinking party
Plato's Symposium is about giving speeches
Alcibiades [al-si-BIGH-i-deez]
last famous member of his mother's aristocratic family, the Alcmaeonidae [Ἀλκμαιωνίδαι]
gives a speech about how great Socrates is
Socrates is a great man, but it's hard to say what makes him great
1. you can't compare him to anyone
as you can do with great warriors or politician
strong as Hercules
shrewd as Odysseus
wise as Nestor
as great a warrior as Achilles
but Socrates breaks every mold
2. Socrates is annoying in a way that makes him seem incompatible with being great
yet you reach a point where no other kind of argument makes since, it's Socrates kind of argument or nothing
Socrates is like
Silenus
a satyr or half divine being that hangs around with Satyrs
a favorable comparison
handsome Dionysus and Silenus went together
often on vases, Silenus on outside, Dionysus on inside, or on either side
Marsyas [Μαρσύας]
a satyr
challenged the god Apollo to a music contest
lost, and was flayed for his impudence
an unfavorable comparison
Socratic arguments are crude by design
a feature, not a bug
at some point, you realize there is no other kind of argumentation, this is it
the argument
Euthyphro thinks his father is guilty of murder
Socrates answers by asking for the definition of holiness
he wants to not know what words mean but what things truly are
the difference is not totally clear
if it sometimes makes sense to demand precision of definitions, why doesn't it always make sense?
at the end Euthyphro runs off
Plato ends his dialogue in this unhelpful way
suggests Euthyphro hasn't learned anything
poses the question: what is the use of Socratic argumentation if it doesn't directly teach people something