Kyo 's Key Ideas from Phaedrus
by Plato, Alexander Nehamas, Paul Woodruff

When Phaedrus sees that Socrates doesn’t like Lysias’s speech, he convinces his friend to give his own speech instead. Although reluctant, Socrates agrees and delivers a speech that is a parody of Lysias’s.

Like Lysias, Socrates speaks as a man who wants to persuade a younger man to sleep with him, even though they’re not in a romantic relationship. He argues that love is a crazy state that occurs when desire takes over, causing people to lose their sense of right and wrong.

This craziness makes people withhold good things from their loved ones out of jealousy, and they even avoid philosophy, which is the source of all happiness. Eventually, love runs out of fuel and dies, leaving both men worse off than they were before.

As Socrates finishes his speech and is about to leave, he feels a divine push, sensing that his words have offended the gods by insulting Eros, the god of love. Socrates then gives a new speech.

He takes a completely different stance, arguing that it’s wrong to reject a lover's advances just because they’re crazy. He asserts that divine madness is a gift from the gods and that love is the best kind of madness.

Types Of Madness By Socrates

1. Prophetic Madness: Inspired by Apollo, this type of madness is associated with prophecy and divination. It is the ability to foresee the future and is seen in oracles and seers.

2. Ritual Madness: Associated with Dionysus, this madness relates to religious rites and rituals, particularly those involving purification and the mystic frenzy of the Bacchic cults. It is seen as a form of spiritual release and liberation from the ordinary constraints of life.

3. Poetic Madness: Linked to the Muses, this madness inspires poets, artists, and musicians, enabling them to create works of art that transcend ordinary human experience.

4. Erotic Madness: Inspired by Aphrodite and Eros, this type of madness is related to love and the intense passion that drives individuals to form deep and meaningful connections. Socrates considers this the highest form of madness, as it leads the soul closer to the divine through the pursuit of true beauty and love.

Socrates gives a detailed description of the soul to support this idea. He uses a metaphor, comparing the soul to a chariot with wings pulled by two horses—one noble and the other driven by base desires. Some souls can control their horses and reach the top of heaven (The Noble), where they can see eternal truths, but most are pulled back down to earth by the lowly horse (unruly). People (The novels) who remember glimpsing eternal beauty in a past life are always looking up (Eternal Truths), which makes ordinary people (lowly) think they’re crazy.

The Role of Philosophy in Love

Socrates explains that a soul interested in philosophy will work hard to control its base horse by being self-disciplined and remembering the beauty of heaven. After much practice, the lowly horse is finally tamed, and the lover has a passionate relationship with his beloved that focuses on the beauty of thought rather than physical desire. A soul can only be directed toward heaven in this type of relationship, making it better to be with someone who loves you than someone who doesn’t.

Phaedrus agrees that Socrates’ second speech is better than Lysias’s, but he can’t quite explain why. This leads Socrates and Phaedrus to discuss rhetoric and the difference between good and bad speech.

Socrates begins by saying that speech should concern truth, not just things that seem convincing. He then argues that if rhetoric is the leading of the soul by means of speech, then a speaker needs to know what the soul is.

They examine Lysias’s speech together, noting how he failed to properly identify his subject from the start. Socrates stresses that clear meaning is crucial and ties it to the philosophical method of dialectic, which involves asking questions one at a time to gain more understanding.

He carefully divided the concept of madness in his own speech to help his audience grasp his point that love is a good form of madness. Additionally, he argues that the soul is central to the practice of rhetoric.

Socrates asserts that someone who has only learned rhetorical techniques cannot claim to be an expert in the art of rhetoric unless they know how to apply rhetorical remedies to specific souls in specific situations.

Finally, Socrates and Phaedrus discuss the appropriateness of writing speeches. Socrates views writing as a relatively new and mixed tool because it makes wisdom appear more impressive while actually diminishing its reality. This is because writing is silent and lifeless; it can’t answer questions or face challenges. Thus, Philosophical dialectic is superior because it is tailored to each soul and leads that soul to knowledge through interaction.