Autor: Plato

Buch: Gorgias

Titel: Gorgias

Stichwort: arete (agathon, virtus) Worterklärung

Kurzinhalt: In origin, the word means 'the property of being male'

Textausschnitt: XVa However, the central term of Greek moral vocabulary reflects the contrast in a way which would have been more obvious to a member of Plato's original audience than it might be to us. The term is arete, which is usually translated 'virtue' or 'goodness'. It is the abstract noun associated with the adjective agathos, meaning 'good', and it therefore has as wide a range of applications as the adjective. We call a person morally good or good at weight-lifting, we call a knife good if it is effective at cutting, we call a soup good if it is tasty, and so on. In origin, the word means 'the property of being male' (as, in fact, does the Latin virtus, from which we get the English 'virtue'). This reflects its original usage when applied to human beings. 'Virtue' was assessed by one's external behaviour, and particularly by one's achievements in society and battle. Later, as this heroic code became less relevant to Greek culture, the meaning of arete changed somewhat, but still referred to external display?to holding high office in one's community, performing magnificent ritual offerings to the gods, and so on. (Fs) (notabene)