Aither 29/2023:62-79 | DOI: 10.5507/aither.2024.004

Motivy hanby a úcty v Platónově dialogu Faidros

Tomáš Hejduk

In this study, I argue that two motifs of shame are present in Plato's dialogue Phaedrus - shame (aischyné) and "reverent shame" (aidós). Yet only the latter, according to Socrates, can solidly ground life or instead ground a more serious-minded attitude to life. The ambivalent form of shame in Plato's dialogue is supported by the generally recognised difference in meanings associated with aidós and aischyné. I trace both motifs on the dramatic level of the dialogue and in Socrates' teaching in his second speech (palinode). The different expressions of shame in Socrates's and Phaedrus's characters correspond to the other human types presented in the palinode. Suppose the palinode develops and appreciates the shame motif as shame based on the divine dimension of life. In that case, Lysias' speech develops and appeals to the motif of shame as fear of moralising condemnation. I further interpret the motif of reverent shame throughout the study through the prism of Scheler's conception of shame, including its division into physical and spiritual or sexual and mental dimensions.

The reading of the Phaedrus dialogue presented here finally supports the more general thesis of Socrates' conception of love and friendship: 1. It is attentive to the whole, including the highest realities imaginable, and only within that framework is it also a defence of sensuality and the shame that comes from it; 2. It belongs to the culture of honour, even if it transforms it peculiarly; 3. Eros is not one kind of lust (epithymia) but a divine mania. Therefore, it cannot be reduced to or controlled by emotion (including shame).

Received: October 2, 2023; Revised: December 30, 2023; Accepted: January 17, 2024; Published: February 15, 2024  Show citation