FLVE - "Aristippus" or "The Blacksmith"
Psyche Yoga Version:
WARNING: This article contains sensitive information; reader discretion is advised.
ARISTIPP
1) PHYSICS ("owner")
2) LOGIC ("rhetorician")
3) WILL ("bourgeois")
4) EMOTION ("gawker")
Aristippus was the founder of hedonism, a philosophy centering on the priority of carnal
pleasures over all other pleasures.
Diogenes of Laertes, in his biography of Aristippus, gives the following characteristic
episodes from the life of the philosopher: "...he was the first of Socrates' disciples to begin
to charge his hearers and to send money back to his teacher. One day, having sent him
twenty mines, he received them back, and Socrates said that Demonius forbade him to
accept them: indeed this was not to his liking.
Xenophonte disliked Aristippus: so he attributed to Socrates a speech condemning
pleasure, and directed against Aristippus...
He was rebuked for taking money from his disciples as a follower of Socrates. "You bet!"
- he said, "True, when Socrates was sent bread and wine, he took only a little, and returned
the rest; but his subsistence was taken care of by the best citizens of Athens, while mine
was taken care of only by the slave Eutychidus..."
Someone said that he always sees philosophers at the door of the rich. "But even doctors,"
said Aristippus, "go to the doors of the sick, and yet everyone would rather be a doctor
than a sick person.
One day he was sailing on a ship to Corinth and was caught in a storm and terribly
frightened. Someone said: "We common people are not afraid, but you philosophers are
afraid?" Aristippus replied, "We both worry about our souls, but our souls are not of the
same value..."
To the man who censured the luxury of his table, he asked: "Would you refuse to buy all
this for three obols?" - "Of course not," replied the man. "Then it's just that you value
money more than I value pleasure...."
Hetera said to him, 'I have a child by you,'" "You don't know that," Aristippus objected,
"as if you were walking through the reeds and said, 'This thorn pricked me. Someone
rebuked him for abandoning his son, as if he had not begotten him. "And phlegm and lice
are also generated by us," said Aristippus, "but we, knowing this, still discard them as far
away as possible for lack of use...."
He was able to apply himself to any place, time or person, playing his role in accordance
with all the circumstances. The same is true for the court of Dionysius (the tyrant of
Syracuse - A.A.), he was more successful than all the others, always perfectly mastering
the circumstances...
When Dionysius spat at him, he bore it, and when someone began to scold him for it, he
said: "Fishermen expose themselves to the splashes of the sea in order to catch small fish;
will I not bear the splashes of saliva, desiring to catch large fish?"
Dionysius gave him money and Plato a book; in response to his reproach, Aristippus said:
"So I need the money more, and Plato needs the book."
Such is Aristippus in the description of Diogenes of Laertes: greedy, thick-skinned,
cynical, tongue-tied - and this portrait, judging by its order of functions, is quite close to
the original. The last example of the Dionysian gifts to Plato and Aristippus is especially
expressive. It shows that even in those distant times and even tyrants were subtle enough
psychologists to sense in those around them their First Function and act accordingly: Plato
with his 1st Logic really needed a book more, while Aristippus with his 1st Physics needed
money.
But Aristippus thought as he lived, his philosophy was simple: "There is no difference
between pleasure and enjoyment, neither is sweeter than the other. Pleasure is attractive
to all living beings, pain is repugnant... Pleasure is a good thing, even if it is generated by
the ugliest things... even if the deed be unworthy, yet pleasure is still a good thing, and
should be sought for its own sake."
Although Aristippus' philosophy is limited to the realm of ethical teaching, unethical
according to our understanding, "Aristippus," like other psychic types, is not only moral,
but a whole worldview. Therefore, the "aristippos" who lived much later than Aristippus
considerably extended the scope of his original philosophy.
In retelling Hobbes, let us not make the mistake of thinking that his teachings contain
something original, purely individual. Such is the world-formed or unformed, spontaneous
outlook of any "Aristippus," because it derives directly from his order of functions. The
superfluous 1st Physics conditions the consistent materialism and empiricism of
Aristippus' philosophy; it also easily converts him to atheism, for the 1st Physics abhors
the asceticism more or less characteristic of most religions. "Aristippus" believes neither
in God nor in the devil, also because his 1st Physics mates with the 2nd Logic. It is well
known that any faith contains too many contradictions not to irritate a strong, healthy
Logic. And the common for religion appeal to feelings is powerless before the coldbloodedness of "aristippus", in whose Emotion occupies the last, fourth line and is
therefore the least reliable instrument. The same 2nd Logic also determines the fact that
in the worldview of the "aristippus" he most values clarity of thought and vastness of
knowledge after carnal pleasures. Therefore, there is nothing individual in Hobbes'
combination of crude materialism with an equally crude rationalism that goes beyond his
"aristippus" psychotype.
Hobbes is not original in his political doctrine. He is both in life and in theory a consistent
monarchist, which is more or less inherent in all "aristippos," and to a greater or lesser
extent in the possessors of the insecure 3rd Will in general.
What an "aristippus" is as a functioning politician can be seen in the example of such
brilliant figures as Emperor Tiberius, James I Stuart, Talleyrand, Joseph Stalin, and Fidel
Castro. An "aristippe" politician is a tyrant by definition, just as any "bourgeois" is. His
tyranny is original only in that it is the tyranny of a well-informed, clearly and incessantly
thinking person. This circumstance guarantees the "aristippus," minus the possibility of
losing the throne as a result of external aggression, a long stay at the top of the power
pyramid until the hour of death. Cemetery peace inside the country ensures "aristippus"
both unparalleled cruelty (combination of the 1st Physics with the 3rd Will) and quick,
dodgy mind (the 2nd Logic).
Another notable detail of the image of the "aristippus in power" is the general opinion of
those around him about his unparalleled talent for comedy. But there is an error here.
"Aristippus" is certainly a hypocrite, but no more so than any other "burgher. The illusion
of some special gift for acting is created by his Fourth Emotion. As we remember, the
Fourth Function is characterized by the ease of its extrinsic grasp, so it is easy for an
"aristippus," a captive of his feelings, to laugh with those who laugh, to cry with those
who weep. However, it is the "aristippus" who is guided less by his emotions when making
decisions and taking action, which is why it was such a great shock for a society that
seemed used to everything when someone with whom yesterday the "aristippus" was
laughing and crying, today laid his head on the scaffold. But, I repeat: it was not a special
talent for comedy in such cases, but a simple combination of the 3rd Will with the 4th
Emotion.
However, the Aristippus carefully avoids direct participation in operations. The fact is that
as a creature of cruelty, sometimes pathological, with complete equanimity, he is not, to
put it mildly, a brave man and is too afraid of retaliatory violence to take personal risks.
Because of this typical character trait of the "aristippus", it is easy to answer the question
of Stalin's direct participation or non-participation in the terrorist attacks by his
revolutionary gang, which has long been raised in history. Now with full confidence we
can say: no, he did not. And certainly right was Trotsky, not a brave man himself and
generally psychologically close to Stalin, when he wrote: "Political opponents clearly
exaggerated this side of Stalin's activities, saying how he personally dropped a bomb from
the roof of the first square in Tiflis in order to seize public money. However, Stalin's name
is never mentioned in the recollections of direct participants in the Tiflis raid. He himself
never said a word about it. This does not mean, however, that he stood apart from terrorist
activity. But he acted from behind the scenes: he selected people, gave them the sanction
of the Party Committee, and he himself timely stepped aside. This was more in line with
his character.
When circumstances force the "aristippus" to do lawless things alone, he usually chooses a career of
swindling, and, one must admit, this choice is almost always successful. The example of Count Cagliostro,
the king of adventurers in the extremely rich in adventurers XYIII century, shows: what heights an
"aristippe" can reach in this field, even when he is ill-mannered and ignorant. To surpass such no less
impudent, but better educated and more cultured swindlers as Saint-Germain, Casanova, Mesmer, Krenk, it
was necessary to have not only a special talent, but also a corresponding psychotype.
The Aristippus is also lucky in marriage scams, or rather, any marriage is a big or small
scam. This luck is aided by the fact that often the "aristippus" is handsome with lush,
sensual beauty (1st Physics), and if not always handsome, he is always diabolically
cunning and totally unconscionable. I happened to know one "aristippus" who, rising from
the bottom, from juvenile prison, from wife to wife - seven marriages - improved his
situation immensely: financially, socially, geographically. By "geography" I mean in this
case, that as a native of a remote province, he married for the seventh time a Muscovite,
of course, for the sake of a Moscow residence permit. And my "aristippe" had a curious,
perhaps irrelevant, but curious, slip-up with his registration. The day after the wedding,
early in the morning, before the passport office even opened, he was standing at the door
with his passport in his hand. One can imagine the shock of the passport holder, who is
well aware of the Russian tradition of multi-day drinking sprees after the wedding, when
she found her husband, who had just been sober before dawn, at the door of her office.
The passport-issuing lady quite rightly suspected cheating and kept my "aristippe" busy
with the registration as long as she could.
Speaking of the marriage scam, we have come very close to such an important topic as
psycho-type and family. And though we didn't want to say it, we will have to say it:
"aristippe is the most dangerous man on earth. He is ruthless, evil, deceitful,
hypocritical, and violent, which makes him akin to "Dumas" (a combination of the 1st
Physics and the 3rd Will), but at the same time he is absolutely cold-blooded and strictly
rational (a combination of the 2nd Logic and the 4th Emotion), and this last circumstance
makes "aristippe" the most dangerous creature in the world. No, it is not for nothing that
my acquaintance, the "aristippe" described above, a shy-looking wretch, liked to say that
he had never met his equal in the criminal world.
Usually only self-interest and vanity are able to lead the "aristippus" to the wedding, and
until the purse and connections of the amiable half are exhausted, he will not let go. If the
half of the "aristippus" is poor and simple, but young and good-looking, he is easily made
a pimp, using her as bait for rich and influential people (such was the marriage of
Cagliostro). A remarkable feature of "aristippe" pimping is that it gets along remarkably
well with rabid jealousy.
Aristippus sex, if not directly accompanied by sadism, is still so coarse, selfish, and
unscrupulous that it is more reminiscent of rape. This brings to mind the legend that the
intimacy between Stalin and his second wife Nadezhda began with rape.
In my description, "Aristippe" looks like a complete villain, and perhaps this picture could
be limited if there were a single psychotype so simple and one-dimensional in life that a
single color would suffice to recreate it. Absolute villainy is as unrealistic as absolute
virtue; they exist only in movies. There are attractive traits of their own in the character
of the "aristippus." Naturally, they are connected, as in every human being, with his
Second Function, in this case the 2nd Logic, and if the "aristippus" is turned to his partner
exactly by this better side, contact with him can be a real pleasure.
"Aristipp is a genius and a titan of intellectual communication. From his point of view, Fidel Castro's fifteenhour interviews are not a feat, but an unheard-of success. In his irrepressible talkativeness, Aristippe would
be completely unbearable were it not for two important circumstances: the pithiness of his verbal outbursts
and delicacy, i.e. the ability not only to talk, but also to listen with interest. At the same time, possessing a
strong, flexible, morbidly cynical mind, the "aristippus" is often somehow timid in thought and is rarely a
pioneer, a true revolutionary in the field of intellectual work. This timidity is conditioned by the third Will
of the "aristippus," for it is not enough to have a free and energetic mind for true innovation; it is necessary
to have the character and the will to be able to see through his deductions, whatever they may be, and to
make them public, even against the prevailing opinions and prejudices. But it is precisely with the will that
the main mental disadvantage of the "aristippus" is connected.
Another remarkable characteristic of the Aristippus is that he has an absolutely
irrepressible thirst for knowledge. Of course, his awareness varies greatly depending on
his background, upbringing, and circumstances. But one can be sure that in the circle of
information outlined to him by fate, he will try to scoop it all. According to Gabriel Garcia
Marquez, Fidel Castro "does not miss a single opportunity to extract information. And at
any time of the day or night he is willing to read any paper with letters on it... His cars...are
always equipped with lights for reading at night. Often he picks up a book as soon as it
begins to get light..."
The fact is that the pay for intellectual labor is almost everywhere so low that it is completely
incapable of satisfying the usual need for the 1st Physique - to live 20-30% better than its
social group. That is why the soul of the "aristippus" is chronically divided between selfinterest according to the 1st Physics and intellectual thirst according to the 2nd Logic. And
to the delight of those around him, the latter often triumphs.
Also. Like other holders of the 3rd Will, the "aristippe" is doubly lonely. The fact is that
high ranking Logic is rare among people in general and is so rarely demanded by society
that anyone who possesses it lives with the feeling of being an orphan until the end of his
days. "Aristippe is an orphan twice over, hiding the vulnerable corpus of his personality
(3rd Will) from strangers; even if he turns his best intellectual side toward them, he often
encounters indifference, even dislike, and full-blooded communication; that is, maximum
realization of the normative, strong, flexible, dialogical 2nd Logic is more a dream than
reality for an "aristippe". The same Marquez wrote of Castro: "Private parties are not in
his character, for he is one of the few Cubans who does not dance or sing, and those rare
house parties at which he does appear take on a completely different mood with his arrival.
Maybe he doesn't notice it.
If we imagine an Aristippus from a purely external point of view, we imagine a tall, broadboned man with a lushly sculpted face. His hair is short and uncomplicated. Clothing is
expensive, solid, but discreet (especially in men). Women may overuse makeup. The look
is elusive, sly, and without glitter.
Summarized: First Physics makes the Aristippus's worldview rooted in worldly desires but combined with Third Will creates someone who compensates for their lack of spirit with physical excesses (excess violence, excess indulgence to the physical world, excessive materialism and emphasis on physical attraction, et cetera). Second Logic combined with First Physics creates one who is dialogical about their philosophy of Aristippusian hedonism via the usage of rhetorical strategies to convince the interlocutor of this ideology. Fourth Emotion in Aristippus (combined with Third Will) often prefers leading from the shadows as they don't have much of a confident edge in their views of emotionally influencing others.
[1] Syntax of Love Pages 220 - 226
No Comments