In Plato's Phaedrus 245-c, when Socrates delivers his second speech (in which he composes his palinodia addressed to Eros), the philosopher calls attention to the importance of "first understanding the truth about the nature of the soul, divine or human, by examining what it does and what is done to it". I intend to point out that in this dialogue, Plato tries to found the mixed composition of the soul: partly rational, partly passionate. This constitutive ambiguity seems to be directly related to those different kinds of Love, Madness and Rhetoric examined in the dialogue, inasmuch as they could be either beneficial or harmful, depending on the way they are managed. Therefore, my purpose is to point that regarding philosophy as conceived by Plato, the appealing of passionate elements are quite indispensable for its successful activity, so that the philosopher must receive an adequate up-bringing in order to reach the mastery of turning elements that could draw him into deep ignorance, consequently into slavery and unhappiness, in their very opposite, which is the love of Wisdom.
Plato; Phaedrus; physis; psyche