![]() Aristotle's Doctrine of the Mean is a paradigm example of his thinking. Though Plato tried to produce a moral philosophy that incorporated this new usage, it was in the Nicomachean Ethics of Aristotle that the doctrine of arete found its fullest flowering. īy the 5th and 4th centuries BC, arete as applied to men had developed to include quieter virtues, such as dikaiosyne ( justice) and sophrosyne ( self-restraint). The root of the word is the same as aristos, the word which shows superlative ability and superiority, and aristos was constantly used in the plural to denote the nobility. In particular, the aristocratic class was presumed, essentially by definition, to be exemplary of arete: This way of thinking originates from Plato, where it can be seen in the Allegory of the Cave. The meaning of the word changes depending on what it describes since everything has its own unique excellence the arete of a man is different from the arete of a horse. The ancient Greeks applied the term arete ( ἀρετή) to anything: for example, the excellence of a chimney, the excellence of a bull for breeding, and the excellence of a man. In this light, the theoretical study of human knowledge, which Aristotle called "contemplation", is the highest human ability and happiness. If arete is knowledge and study, the highest human knowledge is knowledge about knowledge itself. In this sense, the highest human potential is knowledge, and all other human abilities are derived from this central capacity. In some contexts, arete is explicitly linked with human knowledge, where the expressions " virtue is knowledge" and "arete is knowledge" are used interchangeably. In the Homeric poems, arete is frequently associated with bravery, but more often with effectiveness. Though particularly associated with 'manly' qualities, the Homeric usage of the term was not necessarily gender specific, as Homer applied the term to both the Greek and Trojan heroes as well as major female figures, such as Penelope, the wife of Greek hero Odysseus. In the Homeric world, arete involves all of the abilities and potentialities available to humans. A person of arete is of the highest effectiveness they use all of their faculties- strength, bravery, and wit-to achieve real results. In its earliest appearance in Greek, this general notion of excellence was ultimately bound up with the notion of the fulfillment of purpose or function: the act of living up to one's full potential. ![]() ![]() The concept was also occasionally personified as a minor goddess, Arete (not to be confused with the mythological Queen Arete), who, together with sister Homonoia, formed the Praxidikai ('Exacters of Justice'). ![]() Statue of Arete in Celsus' Library in Ephesus, 2nd century ADĪrete ( Ancient Greek: ἀρετή, romanized: aretḗ) is a concept in ancient Greek thought that, in its most basic sense, refers to 'excellence' of any kind -especially a person or thing's "full realization of potential or inherent function." The term may also refer to excellence in " moral virtue." ![]()
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