Plato's Ion with Erik Rostad, Dr. Grabowski, and More

So we have the Ion here at the beginning.

What we get then, as we already talked about the opening of the claim, or the opening of the setting, is we see that Ion has won a great victory in his capacity as a Rhapsode to recite Homer.

He presents himself very much as an expert in Homer.

In fact, this is at, what is this, 350? He says that I speak most finely of all human beings about Homer.

And so this is the setup that we receive.

Again, I find it somewhat similar to the beginning of the symposium in which we have a poet who has won a great victory.

In certain ways, then, I think Ion could what? Be an analog for Homer? poetry overall for a poet.

Like if Socrates, who stands for philosophy, is going to dialogue with someone, then he's going to dialogue with the absolute best poet on Homer that he can find, which is kind of presented here in the character of Ion.

But what's the problem that we run into here at the beginning of the text? Why is it problematic from Homer's standpoint that Ion doesn't know, like he only knows about one Homer.

He can't talk about or opine on many different types of poets.

It's just Homer.

How does Socrates use this to kind of set up a problem that we see with Ion?

Well, the other poets write about similar things.

Yeah.

So he says right before this and right before Ion or Eon boasts about his ability, which I think also we ought to put this a little in the hippiest category where he basically says, I am the greatest of, in hippiest case, he's the greatest at everything at all, period.

Yeah.

But Eon says he's the greatest in his understanding of Homer.

Socrates has set this up just before, though.

He said that the rhapsode ought to interpret the mind of the poet to his hearers.

So I think he's then going to ask Eon, what is it that you do? What sort of techne do you have? And he goes through a whole bunch of lists of technes.

Do you have this one or that one? Because Socrates seems to have set up something that, Eon's okay with it first and then kind of backs away from later, which is that he doesn't just know how to recite Homer as if he had, you know, learned the words and then now echoes them back and acts them out as a kind of, as an act, almost like a play actor, an actor on stage, which Socrates talks about the clothes and all the rest of it, in a way that is feelingly accepted by the That seems to be the techne that Aeon has.

But what Socrates says is that you know how to understand and interpret the mind of the poet.

And Aeon says, yes, that's what I do.

But again, as Frank was just saying, like if he did that, then wouldn't he understand the subject matter? And that's where we get in the next step, which is saying, would you really understand the subject matter? Do we have a good working definition for techne? Skill or craft

is pretty close.

So we have the Ion here at the beginning.

What we get then, as we already talked about the opening of the claim, or the opening of the setting, is we see that Ion has won a great victory in his capacity as a Rhapsode to recite Homer.

He presents himself very much as an expert in Homer.

In fact, this is at, what is this, 350? He says that I speak most finely of all human beings about Homer.

And so this is the setup that we receive.

Again, I find it somewhat similar to the beginning of the symposium in which we have a poet who has won a great victory.

In certain ways, then, I think Ion could what? Be an analog for Homer? poetry overall for a poet.

Like if Socrates, who stands for philosophy, is going to dialogue with someone, then he's going to dialogue with the absolute best poet on Homer that he can find, which is kind of presented here in the character of Ion.

But what's the problem that we run into here at the beginning of the text? Why is it problematic from Homer's standpoint that Ion doesn't know, like he only knows about one Homer.

He can't talk about or opine on many different types of poets.

It's just Homer.

How does Socrates use this to kind of set up a problem that we see with Ion?

Well, the other poets write about similar things.

Yeah.

So he says right before this and right before Ion or Eon boasts about his ability, which I think also we ought to put this a little in the hippiest category where he basically says, I am the greatest of, in hippiest case, he's the greatest at everything at all, period.

Yeah.

But Eon says he's the greatest in his understanding of Homer.

Socrates has set this up just before, though.

He said that the rhapsode ought to interpret the mind of the poet to his hearers.

So I think he's then going to ask Eon, what is it that you do? What sort of techne do you have? And he goes through a whole bunch of lists of technes.

Do you have this one or that one? Because Socrates seems to have set up something that, Eon's okay with it first and then kind of backs away from later, which is that he doesn't just know how to recite Homer as if he had, you know, learned the words and then now echoes them back and acts them out as a kind of, as an act, almost like a play actor, an actor on stage, which Socrates talks about the clothes and all the rest of it, in a way that is feelingly accepted by the That seems to be the techne that Aeon has.

But what Socrates says is that you know how to understand and interpret the mind of the poet.

And Aeon says, yes, that's what I do.

But again, as Frank was just saying, like if he did that, then wouldn't he understand the subject matter? And that's where we get in the next step, which is saying, would you really understand the subject matter? Do we have a good working definition for techne? Skill or craft

is pretty close.