On a Joke, in an Educated Age

The world needs philosophy more than philosophy thinks. Philosophy is ill, it might be dying, but I am sure that the world (the world, neither a God nor a prophet, but the world) is saying to philosophy: ‘Get up and walk!’ (Alain Badiou 2003a)

I must purify myself. Now for those whose offense lies in telling false stories about matters divine, there is an ancient rite of purification--Homer did not know it, but Stesichorus did. When he lost his sight for speaking ill of Helen, he did not, like Homer, remain in the dark about the reason why. On the contrary, true follower of  the Muses that he was, he understood it and immediately composed these lines:

There is no truth to that story,

You never sailed that lovely ship,

You never reached the tower of Troy

As soon as he completed the poem we call the Palinode ["the recantation,"] he immediately regained his sight. Now I will prove to be wiser than Homer and Stesichorus to this small extent.--Plato, Phaedrus (243a-b). [Translated by Nehemas & Woodruff as reprinted in the Cooper (ed) Plato: Complete Works.]

There is a medical condition, informally known as 'hysterical blindness;'* somebody's physiology and neurology works well, but the patient reports blindness. The syndrome is often induced by stress or an accident (see here on Wikipedia). It's a tricky syndrome to treat for the attending physician because, as Wikipedia,puts it, "attributing physical symptoms to a psychological cause is not accepted by many educated people in western cultures." 

Stesichorus, the great poet, heals himself by publicly speaking (singing) the truth. His words purge -- like a medicinal -- not just the previously exclaimed falsehood, but also his blindness. While correlation does not prove causation, of course, it's pretty clear that we are supposed to allow the possibility that the right sort of words can impact (the very possibility of having) sight. Given that Socrates insists that the right sort of "Muses' madness" (which he associated with Dionysus) is an intrinsic feature of genuine poetry, a modern reader might well be tempted by the idea that Stesichorus suffered from conversion disorder induced, in part, by the consequences of embracing false poetry that was alleviated by its displacement by (composing and) reciting true poetry. 

 

In context, Socrates implies that Homer's version of Helen's story is false--a topic that also exercises Herodotus, who offers evidence against Homer's version of the account. Strikingly enough, Socrates rejects this Herodotean approach as a "clever story" that modern intellectuals discern within the myths they reject. Rationalizing explanations distract from the true task at hand, self-knowledge. (Phaedrus, 229c-230a)

 

That is to say, a naturalizing account of the miracle of Stesichorus' recovery misses the point here.  The path to wisdom here, starts with accepting that the impact of words can be extremely powerful. This power of words, in extremis capable of corrupting us into blindness or healing us into visibility, is a "truth about the nature of the soul" (245c) that precedes, and is a kind of condition of possibility for, Socrates' great, poetic speech on love.  Words can cast spells over even the best souls (Menexenus 234-5).

 

A theorist among economists, once quoted Badiou's line above to me.  My youthful self, could only read it as a joke--Badiou belongs to the wrong party, and he has tendency to be oracular about that familiar friend, set-theory. But more often than not, the joke is on me; philosophy can only walk upright again if it embraces the far-reaching potential of true poetry.

 

 

 

*I learned about it under this name from my retina-surgeon wife; conversion disorder is the more neutral term.

Comments

[M. Anderson]

Eric, you may appreciate this piece on speaking the truth in the Republic:

http://campus.belmont.edu/philosophy/profs/PublishedAletheLegeis.pdf

[M. Anderson]

Also, see Phaedo 115e5-6: "...not speaking nobly/well is not only problematic (lit. "out of tune") in itself, but it even introduces something base into souls." (My trans.)

[Eric Schliesser]

Thank you for the paper and the suggestion!