Black Logic (A fictional greek myth)

Legend has it that a greek Philosopher named Xylo; a student of Thales of Miletus was once asked by a King of Sparta to construct philosophical arguments that might be used as weapons of war.

“Weapons?”, asked Xylo.

“Yes, arguments convincing people to surrender to my army or perhaps an argument that would make them so depressed they will commit suicide or even an argument that can convince even the most cowardly Spartan that it is a happy and glorious thing to die for Sparta, so that he will fight more bravely”, said the King.

“Well, I am not sure that doing such a thing would be ethical”, replied Xylo.

“Oh but surely, something that is logical could never be evil”, said the King, “If there is a logical argument for doing something then how can it be wrong? For example, cannibalism and incest are evil things because they are illogical; if there was a logical justification for them they wouldn’t appear, to any intelligent rational person, to be evil”.

“Well, perhaps”, said Xylo, “But also, you are assuming that what you ask me to do is possible. What if no such arguments exist? A philosopher is not a magician, he can only create or discover what exists or is possible. What if there are no such arguments or what if they can only be used within very limited situations? For example, it is easy to convince a sane, intelligent man to surrender when the odds of winning are visibly against him. You simply need to draw his attention to that fact and he will be convinced by the evidence. But how would you convince a man who was clearly upon the edge of victory that he was on the edge of defeat or a man with everything on his side that his chances were hopeless?”.

“Well, that is your problem”, said the King, “You’re the philosopher, not me. Although I do have a very convincing argument as to why you should undertake the task I am offering you and perform it well”.

“You do?”, asked Xylo.

The Spartan king drew his sword.

“Succeed and I shall give you wealth or whatever else it is within my power as King of Sparta to give you”, he said, “Fail and I shall only give you a slow and lingering death. Is that convincing to you?”.

“Very”, said Xylo, looking at the sword and gulping.

And so Xylo went from the Kings palace to the house that the King had granted him and devoted the rest of that year to the task of trying to construct logical arguments so powerfully compelling that they could be used as weapons.

At first, he attempted to construct arguments that would convince happy, intelligent, rational people to commit suicide but, unfortunately, pondering the subject of reasons for suicide only made Xylo so depressed that he was forced to turn to alcohol and opium to alleviate his depression also, it worried him that if he were to successfully create an argument for committing suicide that he himself would be convinced by it into ending his own life.

And so he abandoned that task and instead focussed all his energies upon constructing an argument for surrender; an argument that would make any person or any army, however confident they might be of victory, believe that their position was hopeless and that their only sane option was to lay down their arms and stop fighting.

And, after several more months passed by, Xylo believed that he was, astoundingly, upon the verge of creating such an argument.

But then another thought occurred to him; a terrible thought,

“What kind of power would such an argument put into the hands of a tyrant like the King of Sparta?”, he said to himself, “If he could convince any army to surrender to him then no army could ever stand against him. He could conquer the world with such an argument and would that be a good thing? Do I want to put such power into the hands of a cruel and ruthless, power hungry man?”.

But, just then, another thought came into the philosophers mind; a possible way out of his dilemma.

And so, a month later, when Xylo was certain of the strength of his argument, he went the king and presented him with it.

But it was not what the King of Sparta had expected to hear.

You see, Xylo had shaped his argument to convince the King to surrender his power and as soon as the King heard the argument, he took off his crown and placed it upon the philosophers head and that is how Xylo became King of Sparta and why the old King, so depressed at losing his power, threw himself onto his own sword and died a slow and painful death.

Of course, we do not know what Xylo’s argument was. Legend has it that Xylo was so worried about the argument falling into evil hands that he destroyed any record of it and never told a living soul up until his death several decades later but what we do know is that there was never a wiser or more ethical king of Sparta or of any ancient Kingdom, for that matter, than Xylo the great.