| What characterizes a healthy political community? For Plato, the health of the political community correlates to the quality of its dialogue. Plato's Phaedrus explores the relationship of speech and health by way of comparing rhetoric and medicine. Each practice shared the pursuit of the label "techne," a prized appellation, which conferred authority upon its practitioners. This essay will argue that while political knowledge qua rhetoric may be similar to medicine, it cannot offer a systematic account; therefore it cannot be rightly labelled a techne. In the Phaedrus, Socrates' efforts as a medicine man or philosophic pharmakos treating the unhealthy city, demonstrate the deficiency of rhetoric's claim. His prescription is one that explores the necessary tensions between techne and eros, and mythos and logos. Such tensions maintain wonder, the condition necessary to foster philosophy and healthy political dialogue. Should these tensions dissipate, like an infectious plague, immoderation spreads through the city. |
