Talk:Phaidon

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Should be merged with Plato's Phaedo. Andres 21:52, 19 Feb 2005 (UTC)


I agree. It should be noted at the beginning, when it is done, that the name of the philosopher is Phaedo or Phaidon, with the Greek spelling for clarification. Apparently, Phaidon seems to be the German rendering/pronunciation of Phaedo's name. (It would be nice to have a phonetic guidance as to how to pronounce the Greek name.) warshy 10:34, 29 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]


Well, turns out, from looking at the Greek spelling of the dialogue/philosopher's name, that the correct phonetic pronunciation of the Greek name should be

PHEDON (as in 'fact', meaning, phe - don)

Apparently, from the Latin tradition, the Greek vowel E (as in English 'act') is transliterated to Latin languages as AE.

Therefore, PHAEDON, instead of PHEDON.

Still, the correct name should be therefore, PHAEDON, and not PHAEDO. It should also not be PHAIDON, in the German tradition, since the original Greek name would have been pronounced with a short E vowel, not a long one, as in AI.

Would any Greek specialists have any input as to the above? I would certainly appreciate that.warshy 14:27, 29 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]


The two articles should definitely be merged - partly because we know so little about Phaedo himself.

Re the name - who knows how Ancient Greek was pronounced? I prefer to do as the Germans do and simply transliterate, whether or not the modern Greeks would agree with the implied pronunciation. Though I am no more consistent than Mary Renault - I wouldn't refer to Alexandros the Great....

212.20.234.194 10:28, 8 January 2007 (UTC)Max[reply]


To the previous user: all nice and well, but I can't see on your message, as far as I understand it, any evidence of your direct, specific Ancient Greek expertise. Can you read Ancient Greek? Can you publish Greek characters here on Wikipedia as I've seen other experts do? If so, you might as well like to create a unique login id for yourself here, which would also make it much easier and clearer for anyone talking to you to know to whom precisely he or she is talking. Thanks.warshy 18:45, 8 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]


One article is about the person, another is about the Socratic dialogue, they should be two different articles because they are two different things BBnet3000 22:16, 12 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

About the philosopher, there already is the article Phaedo of Elis. Andres 06:53, 19 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Good point by Andres. So now, my suggestion would be to look at the three entries, and see what information which is contained here and in Phaedo of Elis, is not contained in the "main" one, namely: Plato's Phaedo. Comments? Thanks, warshy 11:39, 19 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

There should be a reference in this article, in the way of a disambiguation page, to Phaedo of Elis, but they should be kept as separate articles since they talk about different subjects: One is about a part of Plato's Dialogues, and the other one about a philosopher. --Xkoalax 18:56, 10 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Keep in mind that the supposed philosopher Phaedo of Elis is someone whose existence and traits (and biography or history) is assumed and constructed out of Plato's description of "him" in the dialogue of the same name, nothing else. But I can accept your suggestion of as a possible way forward. How would we proceed with that? Also, there is still the question of the spelling of the name in English as discussed above: should it be Phaidon, Phedon, Phaedo, or Phedo? warshy 19:13, 10 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I went ahead and converted this to a disambiguation page but the wording is kind of clumsy so if anyone can fix it up that would be great. It now distinguishes Phaedo of Elis from the dialogue Phaedo. Regarding other spellings, they can be made as redirects. Tocharianne 23:28, 14 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I fixed all incoming links--they divide evenly and unambiguously between the person, the dialogue and Phaidon Press. Tocharianne 23:36, 14 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]