Speech

Use in the book

The opening contrasts other lovers' talk with Socrates' long silence. Speech becomes possible when the divine opposition no longer prevents it and Alcibiades is ready to listen. The problem is therefore not simply whether words can be produced, but whether this conversation can benefit its hearer rather than occur in vain.

At 106b dialogue takes the specific form of questioning and answering instead of the long speech Alcibiades expects. At 110a Socrates asks him to answer truly so the conversations will not be futile. Truthfulness and participation are conditions of their value. The later challenge to persuade one person as well as a crowd ties private conversation to Alcibiades' projected public speech.

At 129b–c2 the present exchange becomes evidence. Socrates speaks, Alcibiades hears, and speech is what the speaker uses. The distinction of a user from a means then extends through craft tools to body. After soul is identified as the person, the conversation is redescribed as soul addressing soul through words. Socrates is speaking to Alcibiades, not merely to his face.

This reflexive use of the ongoing activity matters: the inquiry into the self is enacted by the selves it is trying to understand. It does not follow that every conversation constitutes adequate care or that verbal fluency proves wisdom. The opening lovers talked without helping, and Alcibiades can give answers whose implications he has not understood. The dialogue's value depends on what it makes intelligible and how the participants respond.

Places to read

1. 103a–106b234Silence, readiness to listen, and the choice of responsive conversation
2. 110aTrue answers are required for conversations not to be futile
3. 129b–129c2The present act of speaking supplies the first user–means distinction
4. 130d–130e2The exchange is interpreted as soul-to-soul address

Translation in this edition

The edition renders διαλέγεσθαι by “talk” or “talk with,” and προσομιλεῖν by “converse.” At 110a3 Burnet prints διάλογοι while reporting Cobet's λόγοι. The forms should not be silently interchanged in a quotation.

ἀκούω

Attested: ὁ ἀκούων (ho akouōn; 129b). At 129b: The hearer, Alcibiades, distinguished from Socrates the speaker when the ongoing conversation becomes the basis of the self argument. Lexical identification: lemma: ἀκούω. See Speech and dialogue.

διαλέγομαι

Attested: διαλέγεσθαι (dialegesthai; 129c). At 129c: Talk with another by using speech, the initial activity analyzed in the user argument. Lexical identification: lemma: διαλέγομαι. See Speech and dialogue.

διάλογος

Attested: διάλογοι (dialogoi; 110a). At 110a: Conversations that will be futile unless Alcibiades answers truthfully about his past conviction of knowledge. Lexical identification: lemma: διάλογος. See Speech and dialogue.

προσομιλέω

Attested: προσομιλεῖν (prosomilein; 130d). To converse or associate with someone; the two speakers use words in a soul-to-soul encounter after distinguishing user and instrument. Lexical identification: lemma: προσομιλέω. See Speech and dialogue.

ταὐτόν

Attested: ταὐτόν (tauton; 129c). At 129c: The same: talking is identified with using speech, before speaker and used speech are distinguished. Lexical identification: contraction of τὸ αὐτό. See Speech and dialogue.

Use in the book

The chain thought–speech–writing makes writing the sign of a sign, but this is one account of mediation, not the whole range of parole. In the conversation fragment, written expression cannot carry all the eyes, gestures and vocal signs that certain ideas need. The question about writing imagines coarse dead matter given the power to speak and be heard without noise or voice, so speech need not imply acoustic sound in every use. The silence-of-the-pen passage brings discourse back to deliberate restraint: accumulated strength must be perceptible when expression resumes.

Places to read

1. I, p. 376, entry 1, ¶1Speech and writing form successive signs of thought.
2. II, p. 505, entry 9, ¶1The written word lacks accompanying bodily signs available in conversation.
3. I, p. 116, entry 4, ¶1Writing is imagined as voiceless matter endowed with speech.
4. I, p. 405, entry 2, ¶1Strength gathered in silence is to become perceptible in discourse.

Translation in this edition

The English translation uses written word for parole écrite and speech in the chain of signs. The latter it refers to writing. Question is a substantive subsidiary here: the printed Question/Answer form ends with Therefore, etc., inviting a consequence without stating it. Neither an answer nor a general metaphysical doctrine should be supplied.

Question

French: question.

The writing fragment formally announces a Question and an Answer, but the answer is only Therefore, etc., followed by an invitation to anticipate the conclusion. This is an instance of notebook inquiry that withholds its result; the reader should not supply a completed argument about matter, speech or soul.

Places to read: I, p. 116, entry 4, ¶1.