this reminds me a bit of the phaedrus, when socrates, quite surprisingly, gives a speech in defense of beauty and love. he defines beauty as the kind of madness, which, as you say, disrupts us from the our sane, 'earthly', convictions, and, according to Socrates, manifests a vision and clarity in regard to the Forms. but this experience is imbued with pain and pleasure; desire and longing, and it is most present in the philosopher, who seeks most fervently to 'look upwards'. But of course, the more we look upwards, the more mad we become...
this reminds me a bit of the phaedrus, when socrates, quite surprisingly, gives a speech in defense of beauty and love. he defines beauty as the kind of madness, which, as you say, disrupts us from the our sane, 'earthly', convictions, and, according to Socrates, manifests a vision and clarity in regard to the Forms. but this experience is imbued with pain and pleasure; desire and longing, and it is most present in the philosopher, who seeks most fervently to 'look upwards'. But of course, the more we look upwards, the more mad we become...