Philosophy Department's 2024/25 Speaker Series is happy to have Dr. Marta Heckel. Marta is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Missouri, MO. https://philosophy.missouri.edu/people/heckel

 

Talk Title:  “Negging as prophylactic against eristic in Plato’s Lysis”

Abstract: At the beginning of the Lysis, the lovelorn Hippothales asks Socrates for advice “about what one should say or do so his prospective boyfriend will like him” (206c). The advice that follows could come from a contemporary pick-up artist manual: do not let beautiful boys’ heads get too big; humble them so they are easier to catch (206a, 210e). In fact, contemporary pick-up artists have given us a term for a strategy that looks eerily similar: negging. In this paper, I argue that this similarity to negging offers a novel interpretation of Socrates’ advice and subsequent demonstration of it. Most scholars have offered what I call thing-oriented humbling interpretations, in which Lysis’ humbling is said to get him interested in some thing, esp. philosophy. I suggest, on the contrary, that Socrates is engaged in person-oriented humbling: he is getting Lysis interested in himself, Socrates. Even though Lysis’ humbling does not orient him towards philosophy, it plays an important philosophical role. Ideally, refutation elicits an erotic drive towards truth and wisdom, but as the Republic shows, in youths it is more likely to elicit an erotic drive towards honour and winning, leading youth to become eristic. Getting Lysis interested in Socrates is a way to divert his erotic drive down a less dangerous avenue than is the youthful tendency. Thus, I argue that the Lysis shows that negging can act as a prophylactic against eristic.