Abstract
This paper examines Socrates’ theory of the arts in the Gorgias and in the Republic. It shows how that theory changes, as the discussion takes focus first in relation to moderation, then to justice, where it is tied to the idea of a techne of rule, to notions of virtuous work and civic health, and to five levels of ‘art’ represented in the cave. It argues that both Socrates’ vision of a scientific and benevolent political art and Thrasymachus’ sophistic theory of tyrannical rule are undercut in the dialogue, the former by doubts concerning the epistemic closure it seems based on, the latter by the tyrant’s character, which impels him toward self-destructive government.
Highlights
Tyrannical rule are undercut in the dialogue, the former by doubts concerning the epistemic closure it seems based on, the latter by the tyrant’s character, which impels him toward self-destructive government
Socrates’ theory of techne in the Gorgias identifies four genuine and counterfeit arts of the body and of the soul, and two criteria for true or genuine art: (i) it must be directed to the real good of the person who is to be served by the art; and (ii) the artist can give an explanatory logos for her means of attaining that end, relating what the art does to the universal nature of its object
A ‘scientific’ physician who sought to poison her patient would not be a true artist, because she would not be aiming at his real end; a ‘rightly intended’ folk healer who saved his patient without understanding the relationship of her treatment to the nature of the human body would lack true skill
Summary
Socrates’ theory of techne in the Gorgias identifies four genuine and counterfeit arts of the body (medicine and gymnastics vs. cookery and cosmetics) and of the soul (jurisprudence and legislation vs. rhetoric and sophistry), and two criteria for true or genuine art: (i) it must be directed to the real good of the person who is to be served by the art; and (ii) the (true) artist can give an explanatory logos for her means of attaining that end, relating what the art does to the universal nature of its object (body or soul). 1 Like Max Weber, Socrates deploys both a conception of technical rationality, and a conception of value-rationality, but, unlike Weber, he connects the two. We are made to envision a society in which the counterfeit arts of the body and soul produce: (i) vast amounts of pleasurecommodities, appetite-objects, which have no relationship to the true needs of their consumers; (ii) vast amounts of public prideor status-objects, paid for by self-indulgent acceptance and votes, created by and sustaining an imperial regime whose values and rationale goes unexamined, because it feeds the immoderate, selfcorruptive desires and self-image of its citizens; (iii) corresponding to that, a vast effort of interdependent economic, political and military activity, which produces the means for and dominates the work lives of its citizen-consumer participants; and (iv) a conception of knowledge which, in relation to rationality, eschews the concept of truth for the concept of opinion-power and persuasiveness, based almost entirely on enthymeme, imagery, emotional branding and iconic stories, creating a social context of unexamined ‘fake truth’ which shapes a false understanding of both public and private good. See Schmid, 1998, p. 124-146
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