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The attached PDFs are the readings upon which this paper will be based. In English 101, reading pairs are chosen because they typically deal with a common theme but often have at least somewhat differing viewpoints on it. Read the passages carefully, and consider the following reflection questions, which will help you understand the main ideas of these readings.
“Excerpt from Phaedrus” (approx. 370 B.C.), by Plato
Plato (428-23 B.C. – 348/7 B.C.)—ancient Greek philosopher. Socrates, Plato’s philosophy teacher, is usually featured as a character in Plato’s writings, which are structured as dialogues. While we can’t know for certain if Socrates actually said the things Plato attributes to him in these dialogues–because Socrates never published–we do know that Plato always has Socrates state his (Plato’s) own ideas. The other conversant in Platonic dialogues, in this case Phaedrus, might sometimes raise objections to Socrates’s (really, Plato’s) ideas but eventually comes to agree with what Socrates is saying. While Socrates does all the talking, so to speak, never lose sight of the fact that Plato is the author here–not Socrates.
When you eventually write your paper, you have a couple options when quoting “Excerpt from Phaedrus.” You might structure the quotation as follows:
Plato has Socrates say, “You know, Phaedrus, writing shares a strange feature with painting” (2).
Or you might write something like the following, making sure that Plato is featured in the parenthetical citation:
Socrates says, “You know, Phaedrus, writing shares a strange feature with painting” (Plato 2).
p. 2
1. Socrates tells his conversant Phaedrus a story in which the ancient Egyptian god Theuth (or Thoth) discusses the art of writing with the ancient Egyptian god Ammon (or Thamus). What is Thamus’s objection to writing?
2. How does Socrates compare writing with painting?
3. Can writing choose its audience or defend itself from attack?
p. 3
4. Which is the better mode of communication—the better “discourse,” in other words—according to Socrates?
5. According to Socrates, how is physical writing like being an irresponsible farmer?
6. What makes “dialectic”—the act of conversing verbally with others—better than physical writing?
p. 4
7. According to Socrates, if you wish to write—or, really, speak—well, what do you need to do?
p. 5
8. If you are a writer, what should you be prepared to admit if you want to be considered a true lover of wisdom?
“Is Google Making Us Stupid?: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains” (2008), by Nicholas Carr.
Nicholas Carr (1959- )—American technology writer.
This article appeared in Atlantic Monthly.
p. 1
1. What does Nicholas Carr notice about the act of reading in recent years?
2. For a writer, what’s good about the internet?
p. 2
3. What did the University College of London study find about the effects of the internet on reading and thinking?
4. What kind of reading does the internet encourage, and how could this change us for the worse?
p. 3
5. According to Carr, what do critics of new communication technologies—like Plato and Hieronimo Squarciafico—sometimes forget?
6. Still, according to Carr, what might be the cost of internet-influenced reading?
7. What does it mean to say that the “content” of the internet is turning us into “pancake people”?
p. 4
8. What does it mean to say that “our intelligence […] flattens into artificial intelligence”?
Each topic sentence must appear as a complete sentence that acts as a supporting claim, or a reason in defense of the thesis statement. Please use the the Prewriting Handout guide.
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