Symposium - AIC

Hua-kuei Ho
emotions, perceptions and knowledge come from. (On the Sacred Disease 14) It is the interpreter of
understanding. (15, 16, 17) When the brain is too hot, too cold, too wet or too dry, it becomes
unhealthy. Madness is caused by too much moisture inside the head. Then the brain needs to be put
into motion (to remove the superfluous humidity) and thus the sight and hearing cannot be at rest, and
the person cannot reason properly. (14) When the brain is damaged by phlegm and bile, people
become mad. Being heated or being cooled may change the condition of the brain. (15)
Actually Plato shares the medical view that the “sacred disease” (epilepsy) is caused by
phlegm and bile in the brain. 8 For the brain is the sacred part of our body, the disease is called sacred.
(Timaeus 85a-b) The author of On the Sacred Disease emphasizes that the “sacred disease” is “no
more divine nor sacred than other diseases” but can be explained by natural causes. People call it
divine because they are unable to comprehend it. This is the way in which the author distinguishes
himself from ignorant people. (On the Sacred Disease 1) Plato adopts the medical explanation to
regard the diseases of the soul as resulted from the condition of the body. Madness is one of the two
kinds of disease (the other kind is ignorance). (Timaeus 86b) Considering these, once again we find
that Plato’s position could not be too anti-materialist. However, he seems not as eager to discharge the
divine matters by physical causes as the Hippocratic physicians. 9
In the Symposium, philosophy is colored with a divine hue. The divine hue brings a new
reflection on irrationality. In Plato’s early dialogue Ion, the requirement of giving a rational account
distinguishes the genuine τέχνη from the divine inspiration. In the Ion, the rhapsody inspired by
divinity—as the author of On the Sacred Disease says, one thing is called divine when people cannot
comprehend it—is not a genuine τέχνη and thus not knowledge. Ion chooses to be thought divine,
when he fails to provide rational explanations for his irrational performance. (Ion 542a-b) But in the
Symposium, the need to go beyond τέχνη is pointed out by Diotima. The communication between god
and human being takes place through ἔρως. This kind of wisdom is something different from wisdom
περὶ τέχνας (about expertise). (203a) The role of Diotima as a priestess from Mantinea (punning on
µαντική (divination)) strengthens the divine tone of her teaching. But now it is not irrationality which
fails to give an account as in the Ion. The ἔρως for wisdom is the rational desire which combines both
rationality (toward the rational aim, wisdom) and irrationality (urged by irrational ἔρως). In Diotima’s
teaching for the initiates, when one ascends from the physical level to the end of the education in love,
and catches the sight of the beauty of its wonderful nature, the beauty will appear “nor as any rational
explanation nor as any knowledge (οὐδέ τις λόγος οὐδέ τις ἐπιστήµη).” (211a7) It does not come short
of rationality, but go beyond.
Philosophy as the ἔρως for wisdom refers to a special state in the soul. Plato does not
emphasize the harmony and health less than any true practitioner of medicine, especially when it is
involved with the soul. But to characterize philosophy, Plato needs to go beyond the model of τέχνη.
Though the corresponding condition of the body can be explained by physical causes, the harmony of
elements in the soul cannot be reduced to a rational balance of the opposite desires. Medicine
produces the balance of different elements by evening out variance. But the harmonious soul of
Plato’s philosopher contains not only rational, but also irrational elements.
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8 On this, “Plato agrees with the Hippocratic author of On the Sacred Disease that epilepsy is to be explained by a physical,
not a religious, account.” (McPherran 2006: 77) “Plato even goes so far as to implicitly deny the popular view that epilepsy
is caused by a divinity.” (77 n.18)
9 Even for the Hippocratics, the influence of divinity might still remain. (McPherran 2006: 81)
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