Professional Documents
Culture Documents
23
of interdisciplinary study that Socrates’ infinity, make the most explosive case the vulgar Strepsiades, all too ready
Thinkery also offers, it is the relationship flatus? to see himself as the star attraction of the
between the things that are up above and For the terms ‘flatus’ and ‘thun- cosmos. Quite possibly the Athenian audi-
the things that are down below that der’ are, of course, one and the ence would think of Pythagoras, too,
provides the foundation for Socratic same. whose prohibition on the eating of beans
teaching. Socrates’ explanation for why thunder was thought in antiquity to have been part
In one case, Strepsiades is asked to occurs assumes that the interdisciplinary of an anti-flatulence initiative: if you don’t
figure out the fundamental laws that the ‘principle of the cosmo-whirl’ (let’s call it want to disrupt your soul, or cause a
sciences of meteorology, aerodynamics, ‘PC’) provides the reason why, in both the tremor in the cosmos just abstain from
and gastroenterology all share. The heavens and Strepsiades’ gastro-intestinal beans – and, above all else, that foul meat-
phenomenon of thunder, far from being system, apparently random explosions stew being sold on the roadside at the
caused by Zeus – who doesn’t exist occur. Socrates’ interdisciplinary Panathenaic festival.
anyway, according to Socrates – is the approach assumes that the scientific laws
product of the Clouds crashing together: that govern the rotation of the divine astral Aristophanes’ antipodal comedy
bodies are the same laws that govern the
SOCRATES: Whenever they’re
carnival meat-soup in Strepsiades’ belly. Aristophanes’ antipodal comedy, then,
bloated with water and forced to
makes best sense if the audience knows
lug it around,
something about the many characters and
Drooping and gorged on rain by The principle of the cosmo-whirl and
intellectual trends this Socrates appears to
necessity – boom! The hulks crash its logic
embody. This is important, because it also
Into one another, crackle, and let
helps to explain the significance of
roll a rrrrrumble! But there is more to Socrates’ discovery of
Aristophanes’ play for scholars and read-
the master science: Aristophanes has
STREPSIADES: Who forces them to ers of all types today. Aristophanes’
preserved some sort of philosophical
lug it around? Zeus? Clouds is the earliest surviving popular
argument, which we can reconstruct by
representation of what Greek intellectuals
SOCRATES: Not at all! The ‘Cosmo- working generally backwards from his
did. It puts on show the many tricks these
whirl’ (Dinos). claims.
‘wise guys’ (sophoi) used to swindle their
Socrates’ principle of the cosmo-whirl
STREPSIADES: ‘Cosmo-whirl’? way into the Athenians’ pockets. One of
(PC):
Must’ve missed that one. those tricks was perfectly suited for comic
1 Pressure causes farting in
There is no Zeus – all hail the new inversion: the notion that the studies of
Strepsiades’ belly.
king, ‘Cosmo-whirl’! what is ‘up’ and what is ‘down’ are subject
2 Farting and thunder are the same
Hold up; you haven’t yet taught to the same laws.
thing.
me about the rumbling and crack- Literary scholars refer to the comedy
3 Therefore, pressure causes thunder
ling. that relates to the stomach, intestines, and
in Strepsiades’ belly.
the other shadowy nether parts as ‘lower-
SOCRATES: Didn’t you hear my (4 The heavens are subject to the same
stratum humour’. This kind of comedy is
lecture, ‘On the Clouds’, bursting laws of nature as Strepsiades’ belly.
characterized by the primary needs for
at the seams? [unstated premise])
survival, such as eating, drinking, defe-
It’s the pressure that crashes them (5 Pressure is a law of nature. [unstated
cating, and urinating, and it has been
into one another, and causes that premise])
thought to be an expression of the cele-
rumbling. 6 Thus, the heavens are subject to the
bration of human living. What
law of pressure.
STREPSIADES: Yeah, how you gonna Aristophanes shows us in the Clouds is
7 Thus, pressure causes thunder in the
prove THAT? that, for this type of humour to work as
heavens.
effectively as possible, it needs to be
Strepsiades seeks proof that it’s pressure 8 The heavens are infinite.
coupled with ‘upper-stratum humour’,
which causes the Clouds up on high to 9 Strepsiades’ belly is finite.
which satirizes the ways we think about
issue forth thunder. Socrates in response (10 What is infinite is bigger than what
thinking and learning. Antipodal comedy
uses a particularly potent form of analogy is finite. [implied premise])
of the sort associated with Socrates in the
to give the ins and outs of meteorological 11 Thus, the heavenly farts are bigger
Clouds stimulates belly-laughing and
phenomena: the man himself. than the farts of Strepsiades’ belly.
intellectual curiosity all at the same time,
Such is the argument implied by PC, at
SOCRATES: Why, my teaching will providing an indelible first image of the
least according to our new teacher of
proceed from you yourself. most celebrated and imitated philosopher
formal logic. Like Strepsiades, a savvy
Remember the meat-soup at the who ever lived.
Athenian audience would have been near
Panathenaia – when you wolfed it
bursting point, under the weight and pres-
down,
sure of Socrates’ scientific demonstration. Phillip Horky teaches in the department of
Got cramps, and – Eureka! – your
In this argument, the audience will have Classics and Ancient History at the
stomach started rumbling?
recognized in the absurd explanations of University of Durham. His book Plato and
STREPSIADES: By George, that was Socrates an array of current intellectual Pythagoreanism was published by Oxford
awful! Meat soup…those cramps, fashions. There are some bits of the natu- University Press in 2013.
Then the rumbling, and a fart rips, ral science of Anaxagoras, the famous
just like thunder! atheist whose cosmo-logy was founded on
First a gurgle, pappax the same ‘Principle of Cosmo-whirl’ as
pappax…builds to a crescendo, Socrates’ meteorology/
PAPpappaSSSSSS… aerodynamics/gastroenterology. And then
Then blasting, a veritable thunder- there’s the relativism of Protagoras’
clap! PAPAPAPPAX!!! famous dictum, ‘man is the measure of all
things, of things that are that they are, of
SOCRATES: So, then, consider how
things that are not that they are not’, now
explosive your flatus was.
on sale to the Athenian everyman – in this
Wouldn’t the heavens, in their
24