Trekky Rhetoric

Reading through Gorgias and Phaedrus makes one question why they are relevant and important if the underlying messages are negated by the debate, as described by Donals. When Donals states “Both Gorgias and Phaedrus begin as proofs to guard against the contingency of knowledge that results from a purely discursive world, but go on to fail to understand that because they are also discursive  then they also will necessarily fail as philosophy. “ (18) 

This statement relates to the most recent Star Trek movie when James T. Kirk is in the Starfleet Academy and is forced to re-take an exam for the third time, the Kobayashi Maru ; an exam that no student has ever passed. In order to be a legendary student, Kirk hacks into the system and changes the exam. 

Much like the pompous Socrates, Kirk calmly goes through the test, and to the astonishment of his professors, successfully defends the simulated ship. Upon doing this he is immediately reprimanded and is threatened with expulsion for cheating. “The purpose,” he’s told during his hearing, “is to experience fear. Fear in the face of certain death…A captain cannot cheat death.” This is very similar to how Socrates tells Phaedrus;

“Until someone knows the truth of each of the things that he speaks or writes about; and becomes able to define everything in relation to the thing itself; and having defined it, knows how, next, to cut it in accordance with forms all the way to what is uncuttable; and, seeing clearly concerning the soul’s nature in accordance with these same things, discovering the form that fits together with each nature, in this way sets down and orders the speech, giving speeches of many colors and embracing all harmonic modes to a many-colored soul and simple ones to a simple soul- before this he will not be able to handle with art the class of speeches, to the extent that it naturally admits of it, either for teaching something or for persuading something, as the whole earlier argument has disclosed to us.”  (277c)

Kirk and students before him needed to fail in order to understand the gravity of their actions in the starship. Like rhetoric, the captain of the starship must understand that his actions (words, judgements) affect every individual on that ship. Until he learns this he will not be able to ‘handle’ those he affects.  “For even they themselves agree that they are sick rather than of sound mind, and know that they are thinking badly but have no power to master themselves.” (231d)

Works Cited:
  Star Trek. Dir. J.J. Abrams. 2009. DVD.

 Plato, and James H. Nichols. Phaedrus. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 1998. Print.

  Bernard-Donals, Michael F. "Reconsidering Gorgias, Phaedrus, and Platonic Rhetoric." The Practice of Theory. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge UP, 1998. N. pag. Print.

 Workstrength. "Startrek Kobayashi Maru." YouTube. YouTube, 03 May 2010. Web. 16 Sept. 2012. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDg674aS-F4>.