Silences that speak: the dramatic layer in Plato’s Philebus

Abstract

The paper focuses on the analysis of the dramatic elements of the Plato’s Philebus. Specifically, it focuses on examining the relevance of silences in this dialogue. After a brief introduction to the concept of dramatic phenomenology as a way to access the platonic dialogue, the text examines two forms with which the silences are presented in the Philebus. The first one is through the almost permanent silence of the character Philebus, the young defender of hedonism. His silence has a strong significance to understand his radical vision of pleasure and happiness and serves also as a tool to confront the Socratic dialectical logos. The second is the Protarcus aphasia, produced in a very specific moment of the Socratic enquiry. Philebus’ young follower, a lover of the speeches, suffers from a mutism that has a strong dramatic significance. The momentary silence of Protarcus and Philebus’ permanent one, are both dramatic elements that complete and allow access to the whole of the dialogue.

Keywords: Plato, Philebus, phenomenology, drama, silence, pleasure, pain, rationality.