Pharmakon (philosophy)

This article is about Pharmakon (philosophy). For other However, with reference to the fourth productive sense
uses, see Pharmakon (disambiguation). of pharmakon, Kakoliris argues (in contrast to the rendi-
tion given by Derrida) that the contention between Theuth
Pharmakon, in philosophy and critical theory, is a and the king in Platos Phaedrus is not about whether
the pharmakon of writing is a remedy or a poison, but
composite of three meanings: remedy, poison, and
[1]
scapegoat. The rst and second senses refer to the rather, the less binary question: whether it is productive
of memory or remembrance.[8][fn 1] Indeterminacy and
everyday meaning of pharmacology (and to its sub-
eld, toxicology), deriving from the Greek source term ambiguity are not, on this view, fundamental features of
(phrmakon), denoting any drug, while the the pharmakon, but rather, of Derridas deconstructive
third sense refers to the pharmakos ritual of human sac- reading.
rice. In certain cases it may be appropriate to see a pharmakon
A further sub-sense of pharmakon as remedy which is of as an example of anthropotechnics in Sloterdijks sense
interest to some current authors is given by the Liddell- of the term part a project of treating human nature as
Scott-Jones GreekEnglish Lexicon as a means of pro- an object of deliberate manipulation.[10] This is consis-
ducing something.[2] tent with the way in which Platos "noble lie" is under-
stood by Carl Page namely, as a pharmakon, with the
In recent philosophical work, the term centers on Jacques philosopher in the role of moral physician.[11][12] Relat-
Derridas "Platos Pharmacy",[3] and the notion that edly, pharmakon has been theorised in connection with
writing is a pharmakon. Whereas a straightforward view a broader philosophy of technology, biotechnology, im-
on Platos treatment of writing (in Phaedrus) suggests munology, enhancement, and addiction.[13][14][15][16]
that writing is to be rejected as strictly poisonous to the
ability to think for oneself in dialog with others (i.e. to
anamnesis), Bernard Stiegler argues that the hypomnesic 2 Further illustrative examples
appears as that which constitutes the condition of the
anamnesic[4] in other words, externalised time-bound
communication is necessary for original creative thought, Gregory Bateson points out that an important part of the
in part because it is the primordial support of culture.[5] Alcoholics Anonymous philosophy is to understand that
alcohol plays a curative role for the alcoholic who has
Michael Rinella has written a book-length review of the not yet begun to dry out.[1] This is not simply a matter
pharmakon within a historical context, with an empha- of providing an anesthetic, but a means for the alcoholic
sis on the relationship between pharmakoi in the stan- of escaping from his own insane premises, which are
dard drug sense and the philosophical understanding of continually reinforced by the surrounding society.[17] A
the term.[6] more benign example is the "transitional object" (such as
a teddy bear) that links and attaches child and mother.
Even so, the mother must eventually teach the child to
1 Connections to other philosophi- detach from this object, lest the child become overly de-
pendent upon it.[18] Stiegler claims that the transitional
cal terms object is the origin of works of art and, more generally,
of the life of the mind.[18]:3
Derridas use of the term highlights the connection be-
tween the pharmakon and the philosophical notion of
indeterminacy:
3 Example usage
"[T]ranslational or philosophical eorts to fa-
vor or purge a particular signication of phar- 3.1 In political theory
makon [and to identify it as either cure or
poison"] actually do interpretive violence to Emphasizing the third sense of pharmakon as scapegoat,
what would otherwise remain undecidable.[7] but touching on the other senses, Boucher and Roussel
treat Quebec as a pharmakon in light of the discourse
In light of Derridas usage, the pharmakon may be cited surrounding the Barbara Kay controversy and the Quebec
as an example of a philosophically indeterminate concept. sovereignty movement:

1
2 6
Pharmakon was usually a symbolic scape-
goat invested with the sum of the corruption of
a community. Seen as a poison, it was subse-
quently excluded from a community in times
of crisis as a form of social catharsis, thus be-
coming a remedy for the city. We argue that,
in many ways, Quebec can be both a poison
and a remedy in terms of Canadian foreign
policy.[19]
3.2 In medical philosophy
Persson uses the several senses of pharmakon to pur-
sue a kind of phenomenology of drugs as embodied pro-
cesses, an approach that foregrounds the productive po-
tential of medicines; their capacity to recongure bodies
and diseases in multiple, unpredictable ways.[20] High-
lighting the notion (from Derrida) that the eect of the
pharmakon is contextual rather than causal, Perssons ba-
sic claim with reference to the body-shape-changing
lipodystrophy experienced by some HIV patients taking
anti-retroviral therapy is that:
the ambivalent quality of pharmakon is
more than purely a matter of wrong drug,
wrong dose, wrong route of administration,
wrong patient. Drugs, as is the case with anti-
retroviral therapy, have the capacity to be ben-
ecial and detrimental to the same person at the
same time.[20]
3.3 In media philosophy
It may be necessary to distinguish between pharmacol-
ogy that operates in the multiple senses in which that
term is understood here, and a further therapeutic re-
sponse to the (eect of) the pharmakon in question. Re-
ferring to the hypothesis that the use of digital technology
understood as a pharmakon of attention is correlated
with "Attention Decit Disorder", Stiegler writes as fol-
lows:
If in fact an appropriate therapeutic re-
sponse to this pharmacology of attention is
conceivable and able to be transindividuated,
then the question would be to what degree can
and even must these digital relational technolo-
gies also give birth to new attentional forms
that pursue in a dierent manner the process of
psychic and collective individuation underway
since the beginning of grammatisation; new
forms that make this network society arrive at
a new stage in the individuation of this plural
unity of the logos where the attentional forms
we recognise as our culture abound?[5]
REFERENCES
3.4 In post-metaphysical philosophy
The following quote from Gianni Vattimo serves as an
epigraph for Santiago Zablas remarks on the phar-
makons of onto-theology. To continue the theme above
on a therapeutic response: Viattimo compares interpre-
tation to a virus; in his essay responding to this quote,
Zabla says that the virus is onto-theology, and that in-
terpretation is the most appropriate pharmakon of onto-
theology.[21]
[O]ne cannot talk with impunity of inter-
pretation; interpretation is like a virus or even
a pharmakon that aects everything it comes
into contact with. On the one hand, it reduces
all reality to message -- erasing the distinc-
tion between Natur and Geisteswissenschaften,
since even the so-called hard sciences ver-
ify and falsify their statements only within
paradigms or pre-understandings. If facts
thus appear to be nothing but interpretations,
interpretation, on the other hand, presents it-
self as (the) fact: hermeneutics is not a philos-
ophy but the enunciation of historical existence
itself in the age of the end of metaphysics[.][22]
Zabala further remarks: I believe that nding a phar-
makon can be functionally understood as the goal that
many post-metaphysical philosophers have given them-
selves since Heidegger, after whom philosophy has be-
come a mater of therapy rather than discovery[.]"
4 See also
Transitional object
Addiction
5 Note
[1] The specic which you have discovered is an aid not
to memory, but to reminiscence, in the Jowett trans-
lation of Phaedrus on Wikisource; "
" in the 1903 Greek
edition.[9]
6 References
[1] Pharmakon (pharmacologie), http://arsindustrialis.org/
pharmakon
[2] in the online Liddell-Scott-Jones Greek
English Lexicon
[3] Derrida, Jacques (1981), Platos Pharmacy In: Dissem-
ination, translated by Barbara Johnson, Chicago, Univer-
sity of Chicago Press, pp. 63-171
 3

[4] Stiegler, Bernard (2010). What makes life worth living:
On pharmacology. Cambridge, UK: Polity. p. 19. ISBN
9780745662718.
[5] Stiegler, Bernard (2012). Relational ecology and the dig-
ital pharmakon,. Culture Machine 13: 119.
[6] Rinella, Michael A (2010). Pharmakon: Plato, drug cul-
ture, and identity in ancient Athens. Lexington Books.
[7] Stiegler, Bernard (2011). Distrust and the Pharmacol-
ogy of Transformational Technologies. Quantum En-
gagements: 28.
[21] Zabala, Santiago (2007). Pharmakons of Onto-
Theology. In Zabala, Santiago. Weakening Philosophy:
Essays in Honour of Gianni Vattimo. McGill-Queens
University Press. p. 231. ISBN 9780773531437.
[22] Vattimo, Gianni (2005). The Age of Interpretation. In
Rorty, Richard; Vattimo, Gianni and Zabala, Santiago.
The future of religion,. Columbia University Press. ISBN
9780231509107.

[8] Kakoliris, Gerasimos (2014). The Undecidable Phar-

makon: Derridas Reading of Platos Phaedrus". In Hop-
kins, Burt and Drummond, John. The new yearbook
for phenomenology and phenomenological philosophy 13.
Routledge.

[9] Plato, Phaedrus 275a, Platonis Opera, ed. John Burnet.

Oxford University Press. 1903.

[10] Re, Jonathan (2012). Book review:

You must change your life by Peter Slo-
terdijk, https://newhumanist.org.uk/2898/
book-review-you-must-change-your-life-by-peter-sloterdijk

[11] Page, Carl (1991). The Truth about Lies in Platos Re-
public,. Ancient Philosophy 11 (1): 133.

[12] Rinella, Michael A (2007). Revisiting the Pharmacy:

Plato, Derrida, and the Morality of Political Deceit. Po-
lis: the Journal for Ancient Greek Political Thought (Brill)
24 (1): 134153.

[13] Alexander Gerner, Philosophy of Human Technology,

http://cfcul.fc.ul.pt/LT/FTH/

[14] Staikou, Elina (2014). Putting in the Graft: Philosophy

and Immunology. Derrida Today (Edinburgh University
Press) 7 (2): 155179.

[15] Alexander Gerner, Enhancement as Deviation

[16] Meyers, Todd (2014). Promise and Deceit: Pharmakos,

Drug Replacement Therapy, and the Perils of Experi-
ence. Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry (Springer) 38
(2): 182196.

[17] Bateson, Gregory (1978). Steps to an ecology of mind.

Northvale, New Jersey: Jason Aronson Inc. p. 317. ISBN
0-87668-950-0.

[18] Stiegler, Bernard (2010). What makes life worth liv-

ing: On pharmacology. Cambridge, UK: Polity. ISBN
9780745662718.:13

[19] Boucher, Jean-Christophe; Roussel, Stphane (2007).

From Afghanistan to Quebecistan": Quebec as the
Pharmakon of Canadian foreign and defence pol-
icy. In Daudelin, Jean; Daniel, Schwanen. Canada
Among Nations, 2007: What Room for Manoeuvre?.
McGill-Queens University Press. p. 130. ISBN
9780773533967. JSTOR j.ctt80kb6.

[20] Persson, Asha (2004). Incorporating Pharmakon: HIV,

Medicine, and Body Shape Change. Body & Society
(Sage Publications) 10 (4): 4567.
4 7 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

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