IS THERE METHOD IN THIS MADNESS?ens, madness and politics.^21 He provokes laughter in all who apprehend
him (212c– e). Alcibiades’ appearance is grounding insofar as it draws
us back to the concrete world of lived experience and the eros for in-
dividual persons after the speculative heights reached by Diotima.^22
The grounding effect of Alcibiades’ appearance, however, anticipates
a deeper way in which the speech he gives is grounding, for the comic
lovgoi of Alcibiades are necessarily couched within the context of his ul-
timate rejection of philosophy and his profound political failure. Some-
how the two are shown to go together. Thus, however comic the speech
of Alcibiades may be, ultimately it is a tragedy; for Alcibiades, whose
tragic fl aw is an unphilosophical sort of erotic madness, seeks precisely
what he is unprepared to have: a direct relationship with Agathon, the
man whose very name suggests to; ajgaqovn, the good.
The real political dangers endemic to the sort of hubris Alcibi-
ades embodies are explicitly shown by Plato in a playful vignette that
concludes the dialogue. In this performance, Socrates, Agathon, Alcibi-
ades, and ultimately Aristophanes play a game of musical chairs that
seems, at fi rst glance, a mere trifl e, but in fact has important implica-
tions for our understanding of the entire dialogue. The stage for this
game is already set at the beginning of the dialogue when Socrates fi rst
arrives and is playfully invited to sit to the right of Agathon, so, as Ag-
athon says, “by touching [aJptovmeno~] you I may profi t from the wisdom
that just occurred to you on the porch; for it is clear that you found it
and are holding it [e[cei~]” (175c– d). Socrates takes his seat disavowing
the possibility that wisdom could be transferred through touch. This
at once anticipates the sort of touching Alcibiades seeks to engage in
with Socrates in order to come to possess something of his spiritual
beauty, and, of course, the rather ridiculous claim that Diotima makes
that a human being can “lay hold of” (ejfaptomevnw/) and possess the
truth (212a).
Later, when Alcibiades enters the party, his crown of ribbons
blocks his view of Socrates sitting next to Agathon. In fact, Socrates
himself moves over when he sees Alcibiades (213b). This results in a seat-
ing arrangement in which Alcibiades is situated between Socrates and
Agathon. And although Alcibiades leaps up in surprise upon recogniz-
ing Socrates (213b), this seating arrangement seems to be maintained
until the end of Alcibiades’ speech. At which point, Agathon remarks
that Alcibiades’ reclining between him and Socrates has the effect of
separating them (222e). Thus begins a little game.
Alcibiades proposes the following positions:
Alcibiades Agathon Socrates