9 - Alcibiades' revenge: thumos in the Symposium

Summary

SELF-PERPETUATING HEROES

In the Republic, Socrates is in no doubt that our non-rational elements can normally only be harnessed when early education is in the hands of Philosopher-Rulers. The trouble, of course, is that this education system must somehow already be in place for Philosopher-Rulers to be created. How is the ideally just state to get off the ground? The problem is exacerbated by the fact that, as we have seen, a role model culture such as Plato's Athens has an in-built tendency to reproduce itself – an innate conservatism that Plato highlights by stressing the thumos' desires for social esteem and success. Once the ideal state is up and running, and state-approved heroes well established, such conservative tendencies can be put to good use: properly purified literature and music, which promote the right ideals, must never be altered in any way (424b–c). In imperfect societies, on the other hand, the same tendencies will plainly work against Plato's blueprint.

The obstacles such innate conservatism raises are forcefully depicted in the Symposium. Before looking at them, however, we need first to consider the radical project for educating desire that the dialogue proposes, and the role in this erotic training of the conservatively-inclined thumos.

THE SYMPOSIUM: THUMOS AS INTERMEDIARY

The immediate task is clearly to establish that the thumos plays any role whatsoever in the Symposium: there is after all no explicit reference to it, or indeed to a divided psuchē of any kind.