Tiresias o esbozo para una teoría de la identidad alternante (empatía)
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Rojas Peralta, Sergio E.
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Abstract
A partir de las variantes del mito de Tiresias, que se toma como objeto de
estudio y como pretexto, se estudian características determinantes de la empatía. La
empatía descansa sobre una cierta idea de continuidad del sujeto en el tiempo y a la
vez de intercambialidad, antes que de mímesis, que constituye su condición de
posibilidad. A la vez, la imposibilidad de empatizar puede tener fundamentos
ontológicos como la singularísima esencia de cada individuo pero sobre todo la
intimidad que se pretende invulnerable –para proteger dicha singularidad– por lo cual
hay una fluctuación entre el reconocimiento y el rechazo de “ponerse en el lugar del
otro”, para no “invadir su intimidad”. El mito de Tiresias muestra ese carácter al tener
contenidos sexuales que dan cuenta de su adquisición del poder adivinatorio: ve lo que
no puede o debe ver, a raíz de lo cual es castigado y, luego, recompensado. Esa especie
de dialéctica castigo-compensación construye el experimento sobre el cual se basa el
artículo, dado que Tiresias sufre diversas transformaciones por ver lo que no debe y a
la vez, esa es la condición para dilucidar la apuesta entre Hera y Zeus sobre qué género
goza más el sexo. Su respuesta conduce al castigo, y luego a la compensación, con el
poder adivinatorio. Es particularmente interesante si dicho análisis se lleva además al
problema ético y político de la pasividad del sujeto con el cual se empatiza o se busca
empatizar.
From the variants of Tiresias’s myth, which is taken as an object of study and as a pretext, this paper focuses on the determinant characteristics of empathy. Empathy rests on a certain idea of continuity of the subject in time and, simultaneously, of exchange, rather than mimesis, which constitutes its condition of possibility. At the same time, the impossibility of empathizing can have ontological foundations, such as the very unique essence of each individual or the allegedly invulnerable intimacy, which serves to protect that uniqueness. There is, so, a fluctuation between the recognition and the refusal to “put oneself in the place of the other”, so as not to “invade his privacy”. This feature is present in Tiresias’s myth as it has sexual contents that account for his acquisition of divinatory power: he sees what he cannot or should not see. As a consequence, he is punished and then rewarded. That kind of punishment-compensation dialectic builds the experiment on which the article is based, since Tiresias undergoes various transformations due to the fact that he has seen what he should not have. At the same time, this is the condition to elucidate the bet between Hera and Zeus on which gender enjoys sex the most. Tiresias’s response leads to his punishment, and then to compensation, with divinatory power. The myth becomes particularly interesting when this analysis is applied to the ethical and political problem of the passivity of the subject with whom one empathizes or seeks to empathize.
From the variants of Tiresias’s myth, which is taken as an object of study and as a pretext, this paper focuses on the determinant characteristics of empathy. Empathy rests on a certain idea of continuity of the subject in time and, simultaneously, of exchange, rather than mimesis, which constitutes its condition of possibility. At the same time, the impossibility of empathizing can have ontological foundations, such as the very unique essence of each individual or the allegedly invulnerable intimacy, which serves to protect that uniqueness. There is, so, a fluctuation between the recognition and the refusal to “put oneself in the place of the other”, so as not to “invade his privacy”. This feature is present in Tiresias’s myth as it has sexual contents that account for his acquisition of divinatory power: he sees what he cannot or should not see. As a consequence, he is punished and then rewarded. That kind of punishment-compensation dialectic builds the experiment on which the article is based, since Tiresias undergoes various transformations due to the fact that he has seen what he should not have. At the same time, this is the condition to elucidate the bet between Hera and Zeus on which gender enjoys sex the most. Tiresias’s response leads to his punishment, and then to compensation, with divinatory power. The myth becomes particularly interesting when this analysis is applied to the ethical and political problem of the passivity of the subject with whom one empathizes or seeks to empathize.
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Keywords
Empatía, Identidad, Reconocimiento, Metamorfosis, Tiresias, Empathy, Identity, Recognition, Memory, Metamorphosis
Citation
https://revistas.upr.edu/index.php/dialogos/article/view/17616