[lit-ideas] aretê - Greek for virtue (was: Query)
- From: Henninge@xxxxxxxxxxx (Richard Henninge)
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 4 Oct 2004 12:01:15 +0200
----- Original Message -----
From: <JimKandJulieB@xxxxxxx>
To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, October 04, 2004 9:54 AM
Subject: [lit-ideas] Query
> Someone please help the swiss cheese that my brain has become. In
ancient
> greece thtere was a word that meant roughly "virtue" which actually meant
that
> something functioned according to its intended purpose -- an arrow which
> flew from a bow and shot something was behaving "virtuously", while a
pitcher
> which was intended to pour water, if it struck the same animal and klled
it,
> was not. Someone please help?
>
> Julie Krueger
You're probably thinking of "aretê," which can mean the quality or
excellence of a thing, and thus, for an arrow, its ability to fly true and
strike through, for a pitcher its quality or talent for holding liquids,
though part of that is, in a pinch, adaptable to striking (small) animals
(see American films of the twentios). I mention adaptable because it appears
that the noun "aretê" is derived from a verb meaning to adjust, originally
in the sense of to tighten, as in clothing, or a belt, bridle and harnesses
to a field animal for plowing, or in arming for battle. Homer, in the Iliad
13:800, describes the Trojans as being "tightened," drawn up in close ranks,
and therefore very resistant, very strong. The word "aretê" can also be
applied in a moral sense, a soul can be so composed, a mind so formed, that
it is "sharp."
The virtue Kant is talking about in the Critique of Practical Reason is very
similar to this Greek ideal. His virtual revulsion at the inclinations that
trouble human beings and make them weak, both morally and intellectually (he
might even add physically), seemed to be the motor driving him in the
direction of the a príori. The German word for virtue, "Tugend," has its
roots in "taugen," meaning that something is usable, is fitting, suited for
the job it is expected to perform. A worthless person is referred to as a
"Taugenichts," a "good-for-nothing," and in that you can see how "virtue"
can be related with a sense of "good," and eventually to the Good in
general. The French, "arête," (here the circonflexe knows what it is doing,
before it meant the long ê, êta, not the short e, epsilon [e-psilon, "pure,
simple, bald e"]), is the divide, the ridge line, the roof top, and comes
from Latin "arista," the beard of grain, summer--like Wednesday, hump
day?--but, rather, when grain acquires its beard, its "best" (Greek
"aristos," the best) part, its virtue, its quality, its special "talent,"
its "raison d'être," that which is eventually gleaned, the thing at its most
useful, what it is "good" for. (For David Ritchie, the "business end" of a
sword.)
Richard Henninge
University of Mainz
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