The Virtues of Unfulfillment: Summary and Interpretation

In this article Chien-Ya Sun brings together several texts/theories: 

• Platons Symposium and Martha Nussbaums reading of it;
• Lacan’s criticism of psychonanalysis and Mari Ruti applying this criticism to education. 

The usual interpretation of Platons Symposium within an education context was ‘the teacher’s role, embodied by Socrates, is to lead the students to on the journey, where at the end they see the limitations of their previous views, and realise the proper object to pursue in life—wisdom. The teacher is to be the bridge between the student and wisdom.‘ 

Nussbaum shifts the focus on the arrival of Alcibiades and thus reinterprets The Symposium as a DILEMMA. It seems, for Nussbaum, that Socrates’ proposal requires a denial of individuality. And the risk of following the proposal is to lose something essential to being a human. So we have, on the one hand, an educated person (in the Socratic way) who is able to lead a self-sufficient life, in which no particular individuals hold any power to sabotage his well-being, and, on the other hand, an open-minded lover who ‘remains determined to care for [the beloved’s] individuality’, but who risks being hurt (p. 195). 

Lacan’s criticism is that suffering is caused by incompleteness, and the solution amounts to the creation of fantasies—fantasies of a self-sufficient life that is not to be affected by things that do not fit its desire well. According to Mari/Lacan, we should embrace the ‘LACK’ and ‘incompleteness’, even (or especially since?) it seems counter intuitive within our culture of achievement. 

Sun synthesizes the texts in this way: The Lacanian idea of lack, I believe, provides a therapeutic perspective in understanding the human condition and its vulnerability, without an excessive anxiety in solving the problem. The human condition as such is recognised as a source for happiness and growth, which need not take the form of lack-filling. It then becomes significant to allow the space to face the vulnerability and learn to live with it. By problematising the idea of fulfilment and accepting Nussbaum’s proposal of seeing the Platonic dialogue of the Symposium as offering no solution but a problem (supplemented by the radical stoicism of Lacan), the achievement culture of current educational practice is also problematised. In so doing, reflection on these ideas opens up the idea of what ‘fulfilment’ is to philosophical critique. 

Maybe an interpretation of this angle within teaching could be to position notions around achievement and the lack of achievement within an overarching frame of ‘process’. Process always entails the dilemma of failure and success.

When working towards a pre-visualised outcome, it’s could be tempting to try to measure achievement / lack of achievement on a technical failure / success axis. But, making and learning about making is a creative back and forth process. Failure is actually desirable as it deepens the understanding of whatever technique is learned. Moreover, through technical failure you’re constantly testing the very fundaments of the project – how much is technical success necessary part of the actual concept? Allowing to have a lack of achievement, to fail, is in my opinion as valid of a tool for growth as achievement is. 

When I work with students, I try to create a space in which notions around achievement/lack of if, step a bit into the background to make space for a more explorative approach. When looking through the angle of exploration, failure and success stop being tools for measurement, but become equally important companions of the same journey. 

The only way to fail/have a lack of achievement is to not be reflexive of your learning experiences. When I speak to students about their projects, I try to expand the discussion from a ‘closed off’ goal orientated project to an ‘open’ process orientated project. As an example, when as student gives me an artist reference and says, ‘I want my project to be exactly like that’, I feel like they position themselves in the rigid achievement/lack of achievement system. Through discussion open up the project for exploration and I ask questions like ‘What exactly is it that you like about this reference?’, and once this is identified, ‘Are there potentially other ways of conveying/creating xxx?’, ‘Could you think of other references that have/are xxx?’ Through this conversation I hope to introduce and reflexive and observational approach into the project, which hopefully has more fruitful effects than ‘achieving’. Once the student starts working practically on their project, I hope that they work towards something they carry ‘on the inside’ rather than an ‘outside image’ and unfulfillment/lack/failure within/while exploring the project loose their negative meaning.

Sun, C. (2019). ‘The virtues of Unfullfilment: Rethinking Eros and Education in Plato’s Symposium’, Journal of Philosophy and Education, Vol. 53, No. 3