Eristic (pronounced e-ris-tik)
(1) Pertaining to controversy or disputation;
controversial; provoking strife, controversy or discord.
(2) A person who engages in disputation; a controversialist.
(3) The art of disputation; of, relating, or given to
controversy or logical disputation for its own sake (especially if pursued
speciously) or as a technical exercise (in education).
(4) In the study of the myths of Antiquity, of or
relating to Ἔρις (Eris) (Discord),
the goddess of strife,
1630–1640: From the Ancient Greek ἐριστικός (eristikós) (eager for strife, anxious to
provoke), the construct being erist(ós) (verbid of erízein (to wrangle), derivative of éris discord) + -ikos,
the English equivalent being eris + -t- + ic.
The -ic suffix was from the Middle English -ik, from the Old French -ique,
from the Latin -icus, from the
primitive Indo-European -kos & -ḱos, formed with the i-stem suffix -i- and the
adjectival suffix -kos & -ḱos. The form existed also in the Ancient Greek as
-ικός (-ikós), in Sanskrit as -इक
(-ika) and the Old Church Slavonic as
-ъкъ (-ŭkŭ); A doublet of -y. In European languages, adding -kos to noun stems carried the meaning
"characteristic of, like, typical, pertaining to" while on adjectival
stems it acted emphatically; in English it's always been used to form
adjectives from nouns with the meaning “of or pertaining to”. A precise technical use exists in physical
chemistry where it's used to denote certain chemical compounds in which a
specified chemical element has a higher oxidation number than in the equivalent
compound whose name ends in the suffix -ous; (eg sulphuric acid (H₂SO₄)
has more oxygen atoms per molecule than sulphurous acid (H₂SO₃). Eristic is a noun &
adjective, eristical is an adjectives and eristically is an adverb; the noun
plural is eristics.
The eristic is a long-standing feature in democratic
politics where the formal notions of “government” and “opposition” are
institutionalized. There is much in Lord
Randolph Churchill’s (1849–1895) dictum that “the duty of the opposition is to oppose” and that process is the
dynamic by which political debate is conducted.
That’s good if a genuine contest of ideas but there is often a sense
that things are opposed for no reason other purpose than the conflict itself; it’s
not the goal which matters, just the maintenance of strife. The state of politics in the US can now be
said to be eristic and that’s not something unique to the modern era, politics
is a cyclical business and the forces unleashed can ultimately create
conditions whereby conflict switches to conciliation and then to consensus. Although there seems little hope of that in
the immediate future, nothing lasts forever and unexpected events can be
catalytic. Eristic seems an attractive
option for those writing about politics because (1) it’s undeniably applicable
and (2) it adds variety to what can be often a repetitive vocabulary, the most
common adjectives in such texts including belligerent, combative, contentious,
controversial, disputatious, quarrelsome, scrappy & testy. Political scientists who decide to use the
adjective should note the comparative form (more eristic) and the superlative (most
eristic) and, just in case there’s any doubt, Donald Trump (b 1946; US
president 2017-2021) would likely usually attract the superlative.
In Greek mythology, Ἔρις (Eris) (strife) was the goddess or personified spirit (daimona) of
strife, discord, contention and rivalry and in the bloodthirsty way artists for
centuries delighted in doing, often she was depicted as the daimona of the
strife of war, haunting battlefields and glorying in the carnage of the
slaughter. Something of the crooked Hillary Clinton on Antiquity, for obvious reasons Eris was
closely identified with the Enyo the goddess of war and the eighth century poet
of Ancient Greek Homer used the names interchangeably in his epic poems the Iliad and the Odyssey. In Roman mythology
her name was Discordia, the source
obviously of the Modern English “discord”.
So disagreeable was Eris that other gods tried to avoid inviting her to
their parties. Usually this caused no
more than the usual bitchiness familiar in mythology but one infamous non-invite
led to the event known as the μῆλον τῆς Ἔριδος (Golden Apple of Discord), known in the story The Judgment of Paris. Much miffed at not being invited to the wedding
of Peleus & Thetis, Eris tossed the golden apple in the midst of the feast
of the gods at the wedding banquet, offering it as a prize to whoever was of
the greatest beauty, thus sparking a vanity-fueled dispute among Hera, Athena
and Aphrodite a squabble which ultimately triggered the Trojan War. Eris, even more angry than usual, had inscribed
kallisti (To the prettiest one) on
her “wedding gift” handing it to Πάρις (Paris, AKA Ἀλέξανδρος (Aléxandros)
(Alexander), the son of King Priam and Queen Hecuba of Troy) who was told to
choose the goddess he found most beautiful.
Judging what turned out to be one of Greek mythology's more significant
beauty contests, Paris chose Aphrodite, offending Hera and Athena, the most
famous consequence of their feud being the Trojan War. Tragedy did thereafter stalk the marriage of
Peleus and Thetis; of their seven sons, the only one to survive beyond infancy
was Achilles.
Eris wasn’t an accident of supernatural genetics but was “born
that way”. In his Theogony, the Ancient Greek poet of the seventh & eighth
centuries, Hesiod, recounted how she was the goddess who gave birth to work,
forgetfulness, hunger, pain, battles, fights, murders, killings, quarrels,
lies, disputes, lawlessness, ruin and bad language, but spread the blame a bit
in his later Works and Days, saying
the source of conflict on Earth was the two different strifes: Eris the
daughter of Nyx and the other a spirit of emulation, placed by Zeus within the
world to engender a healthy sense of competition. That much appealed to the German philosopher Friedrich
Nietzsche (1844–1900) who decided “a healthy sense of competition” was the struggle
for survival and supremacy between men which was the very nature of human existence
and in Homer's Contest (circa 1872
and described as a preface for one of several projected or at least
contemplated books) he wrote: “Without
competing ambition the Hellenic State like the Hellenic man degenerates. He becomes bad and cruel, thirsting for
revenge, and godless; in short, he becomes “pre-Homeric” — and then it needs
only a panic in order to bring about his fall and to crush him.” Contemplating the Germany of the Weimar
Republic (1918-1933), Adolf Hitler (1889-1945; Führer (leader) and German head
of government 1933-1945 & head of state 1934-1945) quickly grasped Nietzsche
and was soon seduced by his words.
Hitler’s opinion of his fellow man was often not high and
Nietzsche’s construct of human nature resonated. He thought envy and jealousy the foundation
of Ancient Greek society, both qualities essential for effective competition to
produce the dynamic in which the strong would thrive and dominate the weak: “Eris urges even the unskilled man to work,
and if one who lacks property beholds another who is rich, then he hastens to
sow in similar fashion and to plant and to put his house in order; the neighbor
vies with the neighbor who strives after fortune.. The potter also has a grudge
against the potter, and the carpenter against the carpenter; the beggar envies
the beggar, and the singer the singer. Good is this Eris to men”. More delicate types like the English historian
Arnold Toynbee (1889–1975 and born a week before Hitler) saw something very
different in Hellenic civilization but for Nietzsche the lesson was conflict
(competition) in all facets of life, be it athletics, art, war, rhetoric or poetry
meant not only individuals reaping the material and spiritual rewards of fame
& glory but the strengthening of a whole society. Nietzsche may not have been the “Nazi” some
like to suggest but his words had such appeal to them it can be hard to
separate the two and the implications of his philosophy are apparent in Hitler’s
domestic & foreign policy as well as the internal structures of the party,
something not well understood until the post-war years.
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