Brendan’s Reviews > Phaedrus > Status Update
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“But when they came to writing, Theuth said: ‘O King, here is something that, once learned, will make the Egyptians wiser and will improve their memory; I have discovered a potion for memory and for wisdom.’ Thamus, however, replied: ‘O most expert Theuth, one man can give birth to the elements of an art, but only another can judge how they can benefit or harm those who will use them….
— Sep 29, 2025 12:49PM
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Brendan
is on page 29 of 144
“If anyone comes to the gates of poetry and expects to become an adequate poet by acquiring expert knowledge of the subject without the Muses’ madness, he will fail, and his self-controlled verses will be eclipsed by the poetry of men who have been driven out of their minds.”
— Sep 28, 2025 01:53PM
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Sep 29, 2025 12:54PM
…And now, since you are the father of writing, your affection for it has made you describe its effects as the opposite of what they really are. In fact, it will introduce forgetfulness into the soul of those who learn it: they will not practice using their memory because they will put their trust in writing, which is external and depends on signs that belong to others, instead of trying to remember from the inside, completely on their own. You have not discovered a potion for remembering, but for reminding; you provide your students with the appearance of wisdom, not with its reality. Your invention will enable them to hear many things without being properly taught, and they will imagine that they have come to know much while for the most part they will know nothing. And they will be difficult to get along with, since they will merely appear to be wise instead of really being so.”
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Not hard to translate the critique of Thamus (the Egyptian god Ammon) from ‘writing’ to ‘ChatGPT’. His concerns are still relevant today, even while the boosters of LLMs (so-called “AI”) in Silicon Valley remain heedless of them, like Thoth…
Also, I love Phaedrus’s response to this fable:“Socrates, you’re very good at making up stories from Egypt or wherever else you want!”
Underrated aspect of Plato is how many of Socrates’ interlocutors make fun of him, often in exactly the same ways we’d do so today. Socrates is always a little bit absurd, which adds to the charm of these dialogues
