Phaedrus

Phaedrus reads Lysias’s speech, which is written in the voice of a “non-lover.”The speaker implores his reader not to think less of him simply because he is physically attracted to him and not emotionally “in love.” Lovers who are emotionally engaged with each other often find that their feelings change, but such a reversal is not possible when a couple are not “in love” with each other. Since emotional love makes lovers do things that may be unwise when looked at rationally, a man not in love will make decisions much more reasonable and well-considered. He can weigh the time and money he spends on his partner against what the relationship is actually worth, whereas a man “in love” will spend beyond his means, or waste much of his time, on a partner with whom he is emotionally involved: “Nothing remains for [a non-lover] but to do cheerfully whatever they think will give their partners pleasure” (27).

Furthermore, old loves and new loves will come into conflict with each other. If one professes to love his current partner so much that other things do not matter, and then a second partner comes along and takes the place of the first, it can be concluded that the lover was wrong to make such claims about his partner in the first place.