The reason why Plato’s Phaedrus even today continues to be referred to as the one of world’s most prominent philosophical dialogues is that, besides being rhetorically refined, this dialogue also contains a number of logically substantiated insights into the very essence of cognition, as the process that comfortably combines the seemingly incompatible elements of desire and inquiry.
In my paper, I will aim to substantiate the validity of this idea in regards to how Socrates theorized the nature of an interrelationship between one’s irrational desires, on the one hand, and his or her varying ability to turn these desires into the tool of attaining an intellectual enlightenment, on the other.
The foremost thesis, which serves Socrates’ Second Speech as its theoretical foundation, is the assumption of soul’s immortality. Socrates substantiates the validity of this assumption by pointing out to the fact that it is only a qualitatively superior force, which is being capable of setting into the motion a derivative (and therefore inferior) force.
Since the motions of one’s body can be well conceptualized as the physical emanations of the affiliated soul’s strive towards self-actualization, and since human bodies are mortal, then people’s souls must be necessarily immortal, “All soul is immortal, for that which is ever in motion is immortal” (Hamilton & Huntington 492).
In its turn, this presupposes the existence of a higher metaphysical reality, the qualitative aspects of which can be theorized by the mean of people subjecting the actual significance of the surrounding reality’s observable emanations to a rational inquiry.
However, in order for them to be able to succeed in this, they would have to be aware of the fact that the reality’s observable emanations cannot be referred to as ‘things in themselves’, as these emanations are being nothing but the shadows of what they actually reflect.
Given people’s imperfectness, as compared to what it is being the case with gods, the only way for them to be able to gain the metaphysical understanding of the reality emanations’ true meaning is transcending the cognitive boundaries of their sense of rationale, while in the process of conducting a rational inquiry.
Hence, the Socrates’ conceptualization of ‘madness’ (which can extrapolate itself in the form of an irrational love), as being simultaneously both: the obstacle on the way of conducting a scientific inquiry, and the pathway towards attaining enlightenment, “That would be right if it were an invariable truth that madness is an evil, but in reality, the greatest blessings come by way of madness, indeed of madness that is heaven sent” (Hamilton & Huntington 491).
According to Socrates, one’s soul can be compared to a chariot, in which the charioteer (rational inquiry) steers two incompatibly behaving winged horses of the irrational desire (wanton) and the rational sanity.
Whereas, the rational soul strives to gain more understanding of the surrounding reality’s very essence, its ‘horse’ of the irrational desire is being primarily preoccupied with exploiting this reality as the mean of experiencing a variety of sensual pleasures.
The ‘horse’ of rational sanity, on the other hand, prevents the ‘horse’ of irrational desire from assuming the role of the soul’s charioteer.
Socrates also suggests that it is in the nature of every soul to aim to remain in the metaphysical realm of gods for as long as possible (by the mean of acquiring a rationale-based knowledge, as to the essence of the surrounding reality), even though that in most cases this proves utterly challengeable, because as opposed to what it is being the case with the chariots of gods’ souls, the chariots of human souls are being driven by horses that do not act uniformly, “With us men, in the first place, it is a pair of steeds that the charioteer controls; moreover one of them is noble and good, and of good stock, while the other has the opposite character, and his stock is opposite” (Hamilton & Huntington 493).
Given the fact that, according to Socrates, one’s ability to appreciate beauty reflects his or her ability to define the dialectical relationship between causes and effects, the sensation of love (Eros) is being of an essentially rational nature, because one’s endowment with this sensation signifies the concerned individual’s possession of a philosophical mind.
This is because beauty is nothing but the one of many emanations of a higher truth. Therefore, the philosopher’s ability to fall in love with a particular individual should be regarded as yet another indication of the sheer measure of this philosopher’s intellectual advancement and consequently – of the extent of philosopher’s godliness.
In order to illustrate the significance of his line of argumentation, in regards to the meaning of love-inspired ‘madness’, Socrates allegorizes one’s ability to fall in love in terms of such an individual soul’s ability to grow ‘wings’, which in turn increase this soul’s chances to soar in the realm of gods for as long as possible, “The natural property of a wing is to raise that which is heavy and carry it aloft to the region where the gods dwell, and more than any other bodily part it shares in the divine nature, which is fair, wise, and good, and possessed of all other such excellences” (Hamilton & Huntington 493).
That is, by becoming romantically involved with another individual (lover), a particular philosophically minded person is able to bypass the cognitive limitations of its rationale on the way of attaining wiseness. The same applies to the individuals, affiliated with other forms of ‘divine madness’, such as poets, prophets and mystics.
This, in turn, allows such a person to gain a qualitative insight into the metaphysical essence of the reality’s observable emanations – hence, creating objective preconditions for him to be able to take a practical advantage of its ‘madness’-based wiseness.
This is exactly the reason why, according to Socrates, it is not the individuals capable of merely appeasing the listening crowds emotionally, who prove themselves supreme orators, but those who understand the true nature of things, “The art of speech displayed by one who has gone chasing after beliefs, instead of knowing the truth, will be a comical sort of art, in fact no art at all.” (Hamilton & Huntington 508).
And, as it was mentioned earlier, the pathway towards gaining an awareness of the true nature of things is one’s willingness to grow ‘wings’, which often extrapolates itself in the form of what appears to be an irrational passion.
At the same time, however, it is crucially important to those in the process of growing ‘wings’ to never cease exercising a rational control over the ‘horse’ of their souls’ animalistic desire (wanton).
This is because, by allowing its divine ‘madness’ to be turned into the tool of experiencing solely sensual pleasures, the individual’s soul falls back to the earth and ends up being denied an opportunity of a qualitatively higher rebirth for a long time.
As Socrates pointed out, “Now he whose vision of the mystery is long past… when he beholds that which is called beautiful here; wherefore he looks upon it with no reverence, and surrendering to pleasure he essays to go after the fashion of a four-footed beast, and to beget offspring of the flesh, or consorting with wantonness he has no fear nor shame in running after unnatural pleasure” (Hamilton & Huntington 497).
Therefore, in order for souls to continue growing ‘wings’, while ensuring that these ‘wings’ do not get cut off by the ‘charioteer’s’ inability to exercise a complete control of the ‘horse’ of an irrational desire, people may never cease being observant of the principle of moderation, while addressing life’s challenges.
This provides us with the insight into the concept of the so-called ‘platonic love’, which serves the dual purpose of providing a particular individual with the opportunity to experience an aesthetic pleasure and to expand its intellectual horizons.
Thus, it will be thoroughly appropriate to suggest that in his Second Speech, Socrates did manage to resolve the seeming inconsistency between the notions of passion-based desire and rationale-based scientific inquiry.
This was accomplished by the mean of him exposing the very notion of passion as such that is being equally capable of serving the cause of an intellectual enlightenment (in cases when passion is being affiliated with one’s aesthetic anxieties) and the cause of an intellectual degradation (in cases when passion is being affiliated with one’s sensual anxieties).
As it was implied in the Introduction, despite the utterly idealistic sounding of the Socrates’ line of argumentation, concerned with exposing the actual nature of the dialectical relationship between passion and rationale, this argumentation even today represents a fully valid discursive value.
Apparently, there is a way to remedy the crisis between desire and inquiry. As Plato (through Socrates) has shown it, both: desire and inquiry are being equally capable of helping people to get closer to the divine. I believe that this conclusion is being fully consistent with the paper’s initial thesis.
Works Cited
Hamilton, Edith & Huntington, Cairns. The Collected Dialogues of Plato: Including the Letters. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005. Print.