IGB Colloquium
By Giorgio Nardone
I will talk about 2 concepts:
- truth
- handling
The truth does not exist. It is an invention of the western world. The concept of truth appears with Plato who defines the concept of absolute truth as being that which comes from God. It is from this moment that the concept of philosophy appears in Europe.
It is not by chance that Plato invents the concept of manipulation to apply his concept to his philosophy by accusing the 7 centuries of sophistry which preceded him and it is a little by chance that at this moment the Western world has separate truth and action.
This concept of manipulation appears when the first form of manipulation appears.
I'm more interested in pre-Plato philosophy in which there was sophistry. In this type of culture we did not speak of philosophy but of wisdom. And the sage knew how to both think and act.
The translation of the word sophist , the etymological value, means the excellent sage . While Plato transformed his definition of fallacy into a dishonest manipulator. Fallacy has taught us how to change reality.
The first psychotherapist in history was called Antiphon. He had opened a practice in Corinth in the 5th century. And he was very effective in helping people overcome their problems. He wrote a text: the art of escaping affliction (or the art of consolation).
Since Plato and after, we wanted to cancel the tradition of the Greek sphere.
The sophists were the first constructivists in history in which there were many truths. Protagoras was sentenced to death - man is the measure of everything (of what exists and what does not). It is man who constructs his truth. But it exists as this Zen concept: truth from error – instrumental truths, which build even as they act because other truths from error exist.
2 therapeutic examples
dealing with how the sophists constructed a model without truth.
The first example was implemented by the one who became famous – Simon the Magus
He was a sage who had studied with the sophists and had to solve a very current problem: an epidemic of suicides.
In Miletus in this city the air was unbreathable, so that certain women had a "furious desire to hang themselves".
Some were trying to stop them. No attempt at conviction worked.
So they asked for Simon's help. He analyzed the situation without seeking the truth. He suggested the following prescription: "Make a decree in the city proclaiming: from tomorrow every young woman who commits suicide, will see her body exposed naked in the main square until he arrives at the state of putrefaction.
He used the logic of the system by reversing the facts.
Find this story (The Hanged Men of Ancient Greece by Geneviève Hoffmann) on: http://bit.ly/TsX9Zz (page 4)
Another example in which therapist and patient reverse things:
Hippocrates (first of the great physicians - nephew of Gorgias) & Democritus (great philosopher - father of modern science).
Before Plato, the word manipulation was not used.
It was the word persuasion that was used: gently accompany a change of point of view.
Manipulation is a direct intervention that forces.
Persuasion allows the
person to change their own point of view and opinion.
When Hippocrates had problems he saw Gorgias who had to persuade him.
In the city of Abdera (Thrace), there were many merchants who appreciated Democritus who, thanks to his talent, attracted many people. Traders called Hippocrates offering him a lot of money. Because one day Democritus wandered the streets calling people crazy. Then he retired to a house near the tributary of the river. He cut up animals there and studied their entrails (he was a researcher in ancient anatomy). Hippocrates was asked to go treat Democritus. The problem being that if Democritus went crazy, the whole island would go crazy because we would sell less. (Democritus attracted many people as a famous sage ).
Hippocrates leaves for Abdera.
He arrives at the port. He sees nervous people. He has a feeling of embarrassment. He asks where Democritus is. “You see over there in this hut he abandoned his palace to go and live in this hut”. Hippocrates leaves to join Democritus.
Along the way he feels its influence and begins to feel the silence, the sound of water. Hippocrates arrives near the cabin and sees an old man with a half rabbit in his hand, the bile of which he is studying. He approaches him. Democritus greets him kindly and asks him who he is. Democritus says, “You are the great physician Hippocrates. I'm glad you're here. You know in the last part of my life I want to devote myself to the disease that struck the inhabitants of Abdera: they spend their time chasing after money! Ancient knowledge says that madness is spreading in the city”. So they start talking sitting on a mattress of leaves. And from morning to night they stay talking. They like each other. They understand each other. At the end Hippocrates has to leave and says to Democritus: "that's why they called me (he tells what he was paid for) ".
Hippocrates tells Democritus that he cannot tell what they talked about. Democritus said to him: "Tell them that you have cured me because now I will make Abdera more famous by writing ... a treatise on madness". Hippocrates left enriched by the philosophy of Democritus.
Find this story in detail on: http://www.univ-montp3.fr/pictura/GenerateurNotice.php?numnotice=A3975
