Plato's Phaedrus - Sample philosophy analysis essay

When Socrates is asked to explain love in Plato's Phaedrus, he launches into a speech designed to placate Eros, the god of love. This speech, called a palinode, is deconstructed in this example college philosophy paper. This example essay looks at Socrates' main themes, which explain, naturally, why philosophers experience the highest form of love. This sample paper would be a good reference for a student who wants to thoroughly analyze a small portion of a philosophy text.

Soul Food and Socrates: Digesting the Palinode in Plato's Phaedrus

Since the early years of human history, humankind's obsession with love has presented itself in many forms-in myth, in poetry, in song, in art, and even in philosophy. Among the many philo-sophical thinkers to examine the subject Socrates addresses the topic of love in Plato's Phaedrus, focusing much of his discussion the lover, the beloved, and the non-lover. As the dialogue begins, Socrates is approached by Phaedrus who leads him to a sacred grove outside the city of Athens. There Phaedrus reads aloud a speech on love by the sophist Lysias, which Socrates finds to be both unsatisfactory in content and deficient in form. Somewhat offended, Phaedrus challenges Socrates to deliver a better one while arguing the same points as Lysias, and although Socrates rises to this challenge, he ends his speech abruptly. Then, fearing that his speech and Lysias' may have offended Eros, the god of love, he insists on giving another speech in atonement, a palinode. In this, Socrates paints an intricate portrait of the soul, exploring first its general nature, then its specific nature with regards to philosophers, or lovers of wisdom.

While he begins his speech with a brief assessment of the benefits of divinely imparted madness, Socrates progresses to an elaborate discourse on the nature of the soul. He first establishes the soul's immortality, basing his assertion on the idea that the soul is the origin of motion, as "every body which is moved from within by itself 'ensouled'" (245e). Since an origin, by definition, is not created and cannot be created, its destruction would result in the extinction of all that it creates, i.e. if the origin of motion were to perish, then motion itself could not possibly exist. Furthermore, when a mortal being dies, motion ceases, but for a being that does not die, an immortal being, movement never ceases. Therefore, Socrates argues, the soul, the origin of motion, must also be immortal.

Having established this fact to his satisfaction, Socrates proceeds to describe the form of the soul, presenting a complicated analogy that likens it to "the innate power of a winged team of horses and a charioteer" (246a). For humans, he says, the charioteer commands two horses of "opposite stock" (246b), meaning the soul is divided into three parts: (1) the positive, or the "good and noble" horse; (2) the negative, or the "bad" horse, wild and disobedient, that acts on impulse; and (3) the force that attempts to control them, which seems to represent reason itself. Socrates further claims that while the souls of immortal beings are "perfect and winged" (246c), those of mortal beings have lost their feathers and are in the process of regrowing them, and whereas the divine-beauty, wisdom, goodness, etc.-aid in their regrowth, "shame, vice, and such opposites" (246e) destroy them. At this point, in his explanation of why souls lose their feathers, Socrates presents the image of a procession of souls, led by the gods in a steep climb though heaven to a place beyond, which he calls "the place of Being, the Being that truly is" (247c), in order to gaze upon a vision of the Forms (aka true Knowledge, true Justice, true Beauty, etc.). To reach this place, Socrates says, is the ultimate purpose of the soul. While the souls of the immortals reach this summit with ease, the souls of mortals are hindered by the "bad" horse, which constantly fights the rein, and "the soul ex-periences extreme toil and struggle" (247b). When a soul reaches the summit, it is carried in a circuit about this "place of Being," but some souls are so distracted trying to control the horses that they can hardly glimpse "the things that are" (248a)-the Forms-or they see some of them but not others. The rest of the souls, though eager to follow, are incapable of reaching the summit and therefore follow along below, fighting each other for the lead, some losing their wings to wicked-ness. None of these souls observes the Forms. When any soul, however, loses its feathers, by what-ever means (misfortune, forgetfulness, wrongdoing, etc.), it falls to earth and possesses a mortal body according to a specific order which Socrates then delineates. With his description of this or-der, a marked change is noticeable in the focus of his speech.

While he continues to discuss the soul's general nature, Socrates now seems to direct his attention more towards a specific kind of soul. The best soul, or "the soul which has witnessed Being the most in heaven," he claims, "shall be planted into the seed of someone who will become a lover of wisdom (a philosopher), or a lover of beauty" (248d). This soul regrows its wings completely after only three 1,000 year lifetimes in such a being-all other souls, he says, require 10,000 years to do so. To explain this, Socrates first describes the idea of recollection: human beings, as they must have some understanding of the Forms (i.e. as they must have a general perception of what justice is, or beauty), are possessed by souls that have at least glimpsed true Being. As such, when a human being sees something that is, say, just or beautiful, the soul is reminded of true Justice or true Beauty, and in remembering these, its wings are "nourished." Philosophers, however, are unique in two primary aspects: (1) "only the discursive thinking of a philosopher…grows wings" (249c), and (2), as has been said, the soul of the philosopher has observed Being the most. Concerning these, Socrates maintains that through constant thought and extensive (in relation to other souls) memory of the Forms, philosophers are in continuous proximity to true Being. Hence, when a philosopher "looks upon earthly beauty and is reminded of the true beauty, he acquires wings" (249d) and is filled with a divine madness. When non-philosophers witness beauty, which Socrates describes as "the most clearly visible" (250e) of the Forms, their souls are possessed by a similar madness, but with their limited recollection of the place of Being, they fail to recognize this sensation for what it is-proximity to the divine. Herein lies the distinction between the soul of the philosopher and those of other mortals: whereas the former recognizes true Beauty for itself and so treats it with due reverence, the latter does not and instead "yields to pleasure" (250e) as an animal does.

Here, Socrates resumes his discussion of love and his analogy of the horses and charioteer. He professes that a man whose soul, like a philosopher's, was "among Zeus' entourage" (252c) in the procession of souls, searches for "a beloved who is noble and Zeus-like in his soul" (252e), or one who too loves wisdom. Upon finding this person, the follower of Zeus is reminded of the divine, falls in love, and, from then on, is filled with desire at each sight of the beloved. Returning to So-crates' analogy, while the "good horse" of the soul is able to constrain itself when filled with this desire, the bad horse bounds forward, uncontrolled. At this point, the charioteer sees the face of the beloved and, recognizing beauty, jerks back on the rein, halting the charge. In this way, by fighting impulse with reason, the lover contains his desire, his "divine madness." Over time, this "divine madness" overflows the lover and fills the beloved, nourishing the wings of his soul. This soul, the beloved's, sees its own beauty reflected in the lover but does not recognize it for itself. Together though, the lover and beloved, both lovers of wisdom, "[enslave] what enables viciousness to enter the soul and they…[liberate] what allows excellence access" (256b). They moderate their madness, maintaining the rein of the bad horse. Therefore, when they die, their souls are winged, thus com-pleting the first of their three "thousand year" lifetimes.

Socrates goes on to conclude his speech with a brief discussion of the shortcomings of being a non-lover, especially when compared to the benefits of a "lover's friendship" (256e). He follows this with a prayer to Eros, asking him to accept the palinode as atonement and to set Phaedrus on the path towards love of wisdom, as it is this love that Socrates' speech praises. With this, the palinode ends, and the dialogue continues.

Works Cited