Chang 1 An An Chang Dr. Kirsten A.

Schwartz, Instructor Rhetoric R1B, 902 22 October 2013 I Want Crazy In Platos Phaedrus, Phaedrus lures Socrates out to the countryside with a copy of Lysias speech on the drawbacks of lovers. On their walk, Socrates explains to Phaedrus that he would simply believe myths because he does not have leisure to come up with a logical explanation for every mythical creatures and lore. When the two reaches a plane tree, Phaedrus recites Lysias discourse to Socrates, who was very disappointed in the quality of the speech. Feeling unsatisfied, Socrates recites a speech of his own on the same topic, clarifying and further explaining Lysias ideas. While discussing the differences between the two speeches with Phaedrus, Socrates suddenly finds the urge to rebut the two previous speeches and talks about how the lover should in fact be favored over the non-lover. With elaborate analogies of charioteers and winged horses, Socrates illustrates the process of which a soul loses its wings then must work to regain them. Phaedrus praises Socrates for the two speeches and the two moves on to discuss the rhetoric side of the three speeches. Socrates explains to Phaedrus that knowing the truth is important for an orator and understanding concepts is more important than knowing the components of a good speech. At the end of their conversation, Socrates prays to the gods and apologizes for any offense made towards them. I believe the main idea of the Phaedrus is madness, because it is prevalent throughout the majority of the conversation.

Chang 2 First I will show how madness is a topic Socrates considers important. As Socrates expresses in his second speech, the one that is inspired by some supernatural force, drives people to do thingsgood and bad. One glimpse of a god is enough to make someone spend a lifetime searching for someone that has the qualities of the god they saw. For instance, after seeing at Zeus, souls would spend their life seeking wisdom. That madness sets people out on lifetime quests. Some are driven insane and loses focus of what they should do in life, in which they begin to commit sins, such as lust. Others, however, are able to take control of the madness and embark on a journey to do great things like finding their beautiful beloved and returning to the heavens together. Second, I will show that Socrates demonstrates madness in his own action. For Socrates, as we can see in the way he spoke, he was inspired by supernatural force to recite the second speech and awe Phaedrus. Socrates was not planning to pour his thoughts out to Phaedrus about the souls and how love could be good. Socrates wanted to head back to the city after his first discourse; however, something inside Socrates, drove him to spew out the analogy of the charioteers and winged horses. At one point of the conversation, Socrates confesses that all the things he said was out of love, even though he just harshly criticized lovers in the beginning of their conversation. He was mad. Third, the tale of cicadas also shows madness. Socrates tells the tale of cicadas, saying that cicadas were once men who gave up their life to appreciate songs. Pleased by their love for music, the Muses bestowed upon the men the privilege to do nothing but sing from the moment they are born to the moment they die. These men are inspired by the sound of the Muses that they are willing to throw away something so precious to them just so that they may enjoy the songs that much longer. These men valued the songs more than

Chang 3 their own lives, and that I call craziness. Madness killed them, yes, but it is also the very reason why they are so favored by the Muses that the Muses sends them out as musical spies and allow them to do what they died doing in the first place. Again, madness inspires people to do crazy things. In the case of the cicadas, at least it was not in vain. I used to believe that the Phaedrus was about love because the three discourses were about love. Also, as Socrates describes it, love helps feed the soul and helps it gain its wings. But love is simply a form a madness, which only further supports that madness is the main idea of the dialogue. In conclusion, in this essay I have tried to show that madness is the underlying idea of Platos Phaedrus. My first reason was that madness is a topic that Socrates find important enough to change his mind about leaving and give another unplanned speech. My second reason was that Socrates himself demonstrates madness in his own actions. My third reason was that even the tales of the cicadas entails madness. I once believed the Platos purpose for writing this dialogue is to promote love, for it is brought up consistently through the dialogue. Ultimately, the idea of madness if presented and reinforced throughout the Phaedrus and that is why I believe madness is the main idea.