Plutarch and Purification

19 August 2023

Plutarch and Purification

“Just as one who runs away from the physician after an operation, and will not submit to be bandaged, sustains all the pain of the treatment, but waits not for its benefits: so when the word (of a lecturer – my addition) has cut and wounded a man’s foolishness, if he give it no chance to heal and quiet the wound, he comes away from philosophy with a smart (a wound or blow – my addition) and pain but with no benefit.  For not only the wound of Telephus, as Euripides says, ‘Is soothed by fine-rasped filings from the spear,’ but the smart (a wound or blow) from philosophy which sinks deep in young men of good parts is healed by the very words which inflicted the hurt.  For this reason he who is taken to task must feel and suffer some smart, yet he should not be crushed or dispirited, but, as though at a solemn rite of novitiate which consecrates him to philosophy, he should submit to the initial purifications and commotions (a feeling of agitated confusion – my addition), in the expectation that something delectable and splendid will follow upon his present distress and perturbation.”

(Plutarch, Moralia Volume I: On Listening to Lectures, translated by Frank Cole Babbitt, Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1927, page 251, ISBN: 9780674992177)

1.  Plutarch lived from 46 CE to about 119 CE.  He is famous for his Parallel Lives and a multi-volume collection of essays called Moralia.  He was famous in his own lifetime and served in such offices as an ambassadorship and as a Priest at Delphi.

The essays in Moralia cover a wide range of topics including philosophy and since Plutarch was a Platonist, Plutarch offers us a glimpse of how Platonism was understood at that time.  It is, for example, of interest that Plutarch was a committed vegetarian and wrote two essays on that topic from a philosophical perspective.  I hope to post some of Plutarch’s thoughts on this topic in the future.

The period in which Plutarch lived and wrote is referred to by scholars today as ‘Middle Platonism,’ which refers to a group of Platonist philosophers who wrote prior to Plotinus who marks the emergence of Late Classical Platonism.  Middle Platonism is a rich deposit of the Platonic tradition and is well worth studying.  While not as profound as Plato or the subsequent Plotinus, Plutarch offers a lot of practical advice and applies Platonist philosophy to a significant number of ordinary situations in life.  Plutarch had four sons, two of whom died in childhood as well as his only daughter.  I suspect that the practical aspect of his essays in Moralia stems from Plutarch’s hope that his surviving sons would take what he wrote to heart and grow up to be men of integrity and philosophical insight.

2.  The essay On Listening to Lecturers describes various ways in which young men will miss the opportunity to learn from speakers who have something to teach them.  These range from arrogance to being distracted to being offended by what the lecturer is saying because it is painful when applied to the young man’s own life; this therefore creates resistance to what is being taught, especially if the topic is philosophy.  The analysis is thoroughly applicable today though we are more likely to listen to a lecture online than in person.

3.  Plutarch specifically mentions the ‘purifications’ and ‘commotions’ of philosophy as sources for resistance to its teachings.  I can understand this and have seen this kind of reaction many times.  Purification is foundational for Platonism and if we look at the standard practices of purification they include such things as vegetarianism, sexual restraint, and refraining from alcohol (and other drugs), not charging for offering teachings, simplicity, non-harming, and so forth.  It has been my experience that young people, not just young men, are highly resistant to having their desires curbed and if a lecturer on philosophy pointed out the necessity for such practice in order to attain wisdom, it would often, as the author says, ‘smart’ (which these days is a somewhat dated usage.)  In other words, a young man might feel a sense of embarrassment at his own inability to curb excesses in behavior, or might be angry at the very suggestion.

4.  If this sounds exaggerated, I have some experience with such resistance.  When I was giving talks on Buddhism I would sometimes give talks on the basic ethical precepts of the Buddhadharma.  The fifth precepts says to refrain from alcohol.  Very few Buddhists, especially very few Western Buddhists, live up to this Buddhist purification practice, or what Hadot might call a ‘spiritual exercise.’  Even most Western Buddhist teachers ignore this teaching, though there are some exceptions.  I think it is likely that in the Platonic tradition there was, and remains, a similar resistance to instantiating the practices of purification that are foundational to the Platonic Way, or Platonic Dharma.  For this reason, Plutarch wrote this essay.

5.  It’s interesting to me that Plutarch compares the agitation that a young man might feel at hearing these kinds of teachings on purification to the sense of confusion that arises in an initiation.  This suggests, though it is not stated, that the practices of purification in   the Platonic tradition are a type of initiation into the Platonic Path.  I have sometimes wondered if there were an actual ceremony of initiation into such traditions as Platonism and Stoicism, but the evidence is scanty.  To the best of my knowledge archaeologists have not uncovered any artefacts that would indicate such a ceremony took place.

But as an analogy or comparison, I think Plutarch is offering us something insightful about the function of purification.  I think the comparison is that when someone undergoes an initiation in a mystery tradition, he may not understand exactly what is happening; the events in the rituals may be opaque to him, the words that are ritually uttered may not have a clear meaning when first heard, etc.  In a similar way, when the foundational purifications are initially thought about, they may seem to be arbitrary or irrelevant to higher insights such as wisdom and transcendence; the connection is likely to be unclear even if there is an attempt to explain the connection.  It is only by practicing the purifications, over an extended period of time that a practitioner can comprehend their necessity. 

I remember reading an essay many years ago by Christopher Titmuss, a British Teacher of Theravada Buddhism.  In the essay he writes of how his appreciation of the traditional prohibition on alcohol deepened over time and how he eventually observed that even a single drink interfered with meditation and concentration many days later.  But a young man or woman, just starting out, might resist, or outright reject such information.

6.  Plutarch refers to being ‘consecrated’ to philosophy, which these days we would read as a religious term.  But if we keep in mind that Platonism more closely resembles Dharmic traditions than it does modern philosophy, then the usage of terms like ‘consecration’ make sense.  And the idea of consecration to philosophy would stress the significance of what is happening when someone begins the process of purification; they are beginning a lifelong commitment.

7.  Part of the feeling a young person might have of being in some sense ‘wounded’ when it is pointed out that they need to enter into the practice of the purifications of philosophy, is that it resembles what an athlete might feel when a coach strongly suggests that if a young man wants to be an accomplished athlete then he must refrain from certain kinds of behavior, that his diet must conform to what is necessary for athletic development, and that he must exercise regularly in order to achieve his goal.  An athlete can overcome any reluctance to engage in disciplined training by keeping in mind the goal he wishes to achieve.  And the young philosopher can overcome any reluctance to engage in the purifications of philosophy by keeping in mind the goal which Plutarch assures us is ‘splendid.’   Splendid indeed is the Good and the One, the realm of true peace.