Phaedrus

“Now I have no time for such work, and the reason is, my friend, that I’ve not yet succeeded in obeying the Delphic injunction to ‘know myself,’ and it seems to me absorb to consider problems about other beings while I am still in ignorance about my own nature. So I let these things alone and acquiesce the popular attitude towards them; as I’ve already said I make myself rather than them the object of my investigations…”

This is Socrates’s response when Phaedrus asks him whether he thinks myths are actually true or not. His response is artful in that it allows him to use myths as a teaching tool—as he does several times later on in the dialogue—regardless of whether or not they are believable or not. His professed uncertainty about the truth of myths could be characterized as rehearsed humility; most importantly, it allows him to use fables and allegories while avoiding the objection that such stories are useless because they are imaginary.

“I am, you see, a lover of learning. Now the people in the city have something to teach me, but the fields and trees won’t teach me anything. All the same you have found a way to charm me into making an expedition. Men lead hungry animals by waving a branch or some vegetable before their noses, and it looks as if you will lead me all over Attica […] in the same way by waving the leaves of a speech in front of me.”

This is Socrates’s explanation as to why he agrees to go on a walk with Phaedrus outside the city walls. He contends that there is more to learn from conversation with other people than there is from the observation of nature; if they were not to have the discussion that follows, a walk in the country would be of little use to him. This stands in contrast with Socrates’s professed reverence for the spirits of the natural world that he expressed at several points in the dialogue. This may lead us to conclude that while he respects the forces of the natural world, he does not desire to spend more time in nature than he has to.