Aashish Srinivas 9/14/2010 FYS: Plato and Socrates Lysis Summary The Lysis dialogue contains an interesting conversation

between Socrates and Lysis which culminates in the formulation of a reason why friendship exists. The section starts with Socrates questioning Lysis about his relationship with his parents. He begins his argument by having Lysis agree to three key points: His parents love him they want him to be happy, and one who is happy must have freedom. Having established these key points, Socrates changes the course of his argument by trying to prove to Lysis that he is not truly free. He begins by bringing Lysis attention to how in some cases, he has fewer freedoms than slaves. An important example is that he is not allowed to whip mules whereas the muleteer, a slave, is allowed to. Socrates continues to convince Lysis of his bondage by telling him that his teachers and your slaves, some of whom are slaves, actually rule over him. Having shown Lysis this seeming paradox (that he, a free person, is ruled by a slave), Socrates begins to ponder why it is that Lysis does not have all the freedoms of a truly free person. Lysis offers what would seem to the reader to be the most logical response, namely that he is two young to be truly free. Socrates, however, sees the situation differently. He asks Lysis parents would do if they needed something read aloud or written down. Lysis responds that in such situations, his parents ask him to do the work. Therefore, while he is not allowed to ride a chariot or whip a mule, he is not just allowed but actually encouraged to read and

write. Socrates then proceeds to eloquently summarize the reason why Lysis is allowed to do certain things and not others. He says, the reason is not any deficiency of years, but a deficiency of knowledge; and whenever your father thinks that you are wiser than he is, he will instantly commit himself and his possessions to you. Having laid out most of the premises of his argument, Socrates begins his conclusion. He gives Lysis a series of scenarios in which he is knowledgeable about a certain subject and asks if others who are in need of his expertise will trust him and believe in him. They draw the conclusion that a knowledgeable person will be widely trusted and admired while a less knowledgeable person will be useless and therefore ignored. From this, Socrates deduces that somebody can only be loved if they have something to offer to somebody else. Because Lysis has yet to develop most of his knowledge, he is still more or less useless to his family and they therefore do not love him under Socrates definition of the term. Socrates concludes his argument by telling Lysis that to truly be loved by his parents, he must become wise so he is of some use to them. The reason why this particular argument is so persuasive is because it involves a lot of examples which most people can relate to. Socrates begins with a seemingly obvious premise, namely that parents love their children. He then proceeds, through a long set of examples, to prove that parents do not actually love their children. This argument is very powerful because it shows Socrates ability to use pure logic to refute what seems like a truism. In addition, the argument is persuasive because of its accessibility. The reader does not have to be well versed in some arcane metaphysics

to fully understand the argument. Rather, even a reader with no knowledge of philosophy can understand all of Socrates argument. If it were not for the accessibility and the familiarity which readers have with the subject matter, the argument would have been far less persuasive.