Unsettling Alcibaides

This is a short essay for a philosophy in education class I am taking with David Hansen, at Teachers College, Columbia University, on "Ideals of Human Flourishing," on the Socratic dialogue, "Alcibaides."

“It is not possible to step twice into the same river, according to Heraclitus, or to come into contact twice with a mortal being in the same state.”
-- as cited by Plutarch, (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

“We find ourselves in a river. Which of the things around us should we value when none of them can offer a firm foothold?
Like an attachment to a sparrow: we glimpse it and it’s gone.”

-- Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 6:15


When Socrates first encounters Alcibiades, he very quickly secures the younger man’s regard by articulating and seemingly affirming the high regard in which Alcibades holds himself: “You say you don’t need anybody for anything, since your own qualitites, from your body right up to your soul, are so great there’s nothing you lack.” (104:a) The portrait Socrates paints of Alcibiades, in those first lines, is of a man quite certain of who he is, secure in his exalted place in society. But within only a few paragraphs, Socrates begins to undermine Alcibiades’ sure footing, by stimulating his curiosity about Socrates’ own position. “I really do wonder what you might be up to” pleads Alcibiades. “Tell me please. I will pay attention.” (104:d-e)

When and why do we humans “pay attention?” The wisdom literature of the ancient world and contemporary neuroscience agree on the all too human capacity to overestimate our own grasp on reality. We think we are paying much more attention to the world around us than we actually are. Recent research has revealed a phenomena called “change-blindness blindness.” Change blindness refers to our failure to notice even large changes to our environment. Change blindness blindness refers to most people’s over-estimation of their ability to notice such changes. (Levin, Momen et. al. 2000) Tricksters and magicians of all sorts have relied on this human frailty for millenia, and the figure of Socrates, as Hadot describes him, was among them.

Only when we sense that something “out of the ordinary” is going on, do we begin to wake up, to pay attention to the constant flux all around us. The process of unsettling the false sense of stabiliy created by our own cognitive/perceptual apparatus (in other words, our own minds) opens us up to new possibilities and unforseen connections.

The figure of Socrates, in dialog with Alcibiades, conducts a pedagogy (as well as a psychogogy) of uncertainty. He draws Alcibades into relationship by first identifying and then leading him to question his most basic assumptions about his place in the world. As Alcibiades gets caught in unforeseen contradictions within his own thinking, Socrates reminds him, “wasn’t I asking and weren’t you answering?” (112:e) Socrates insists that Alcibiades take responsibility for his own growing uncertainty.

Yet somehow Socrates is able to build a sense of trust between himself and Alcibiades throughout this process, that his interlocuter is able to tolerate the discomfort of being dislodged from his previous sense of himself. In a telling exchange about midway through the dialog, Alcibiades begins to balk at Socrates’ incessant questioning. “Stop pushing me around, Socrates!” As they negotiate, Socrates asks, “Wouldn’t you be completely convinced if you yourself said, “Yes, that’s how it is?” Alcibiades comes around, saying, “I’d better answer—I don’t think I’ll come to any harm.” (114:d-e)

It seems that Alcibiades is comforted by the fact of Socrates’ apparent regard for him. Alcibiades seems to feel understood by Socrates, that the older man is truly seeing him and listening to him. This sense of loving attention, professed by Socrates at the outset of the dialog draws him in, and Socrates’ patience and persistence draws him out, lending him the courage to confront the inherent instability of his own self in relation to the cosmos. “I swear by the gods, Socrates, I have no idea what I mean---I must be in some absolutely bizarre condition! When you ask me questions, first I think one thing, and then I think something else.” This aporia, this impasse, becomes a gateway into a new way of life for Alcibiades. Socrates has rescued him from the fate of being one of “those who don’t know but think they do know..the ignorance that causes bad things..the most disgraceful sort of stupidity.” (118:a)

The power dynamic of the relationship turns full circle. Alcibiades fully embraces his new role as suplicant and suitor, asking, “what kind of self-cultivation do I need to practice? Can you show me the way?” Socrates, at this critical shift, gently rebuffs the leadership role proferred to him, saying “the need for education applies to me as well as to you—we’re in the same condition….” (123:c) By insisting that they are fellow travelers, Socrates affirms his loving relationship with Alcibiades. But even on the topic of friendship itself, Socrates does not allow Alcibiades to rest, forcing him to question even the most basic human bonds so that his younger companion exclaims, “I think I must have been in an appalling state for a long time, without being aware of it.” And Socrates is right there, to comfort him, “don’t lose heart. If you were fifty when you realized it, then it would have been hard of you to cultivate yourself, but now you’re just the right age to see it.” (127:d)

Now that Socrates has fully earned Alcibiades’admiration, he takes care not to abuse it.

As Plutarch,in On Listening, wrote“Admiration is the opposite to contempt, and it is, of course, a sign of a more reasonable and equable nature; all the same, it too needs quite a lot of caution, and perhaps even more. The reason is that although contempt and wilfulness lessoin the benefit to be gained from speakers, yet admiration an innocence increase the possibility of harm.” 41A [7] As the dialog draws to a conclusion, the larger social good of the growing bond between the two men comes into focus. Socrates’ efforts to help Alcibiades become a wise and just leader of Athens becomes clear. Socrates tells Alcibiades, “ I shall never forsake you now, never, unless the Athenian people make you corrupt and ugly.”

If the antidote to corruption is self knowledge, Socrates asserts that they truly need each other, that in relationship, with one another, they can come to know themselves. By providing a model of attentiveness, Socrates has taught Alcibiades to attend to others. Socrates says, “if the soul, Alcibades, is to know itself it must look at a soul, and especially at that region in which what makes a soul good, wisdom, occurs, and anything else which is similar to it.”(133:b) The transformation is complete: the young man who believed he had no need of anyone now pledges to Socrates, “from this day forward I will never fail to attend on you.” And Socrates pledges to continue to care for Alcibiades, yet warns against certainty even in this strengthening bond, asserting that they must both remain aware of forces larger than themselves continually at play, “I should like to believe that you will persevere, but I’m afraid—not because I distrust your nature, but because I know how powerful the city is—I’m afraid it might get the better of both me and you.”