Greek Tradition

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The Western Approaches Division of Ethics Arete'

The Greeks

For the ancient Greeks, the word ethics (arete') meant "character". Aristotle believed that the study of ethics was "the study of excellence or the virtues of character" (United States Naval Academy, 2005).

They took the quest for excellence to the extreme of applying it to objects as well, as we read on the Ethics Updates glossary:

A guitar, for example, has its areté in producing harmonious music, just as a hammer has its excellence or virtue in pounding nails into wood well. So, too, the virtue of an Olympic swimmer is in swimming well, and the virtue of a national leader lies in motivating people to work for the common good (Lawrence M. Hinman, 2005).

In essence, Newton says, they attempted to apply to human law the constancy and predictability they observed in nature.

Thucydided asked: "Is there anything right at all, or are there simply force, might, and the ability to get your own way and call it justice?" (p. 31, 4).

Plato answered that the human being would ultimately find peace by living righteously, or seeking a modest and virtuous (ordered and balanced) life in self-sufficiency, seeking justification exclusively within the self (p. 32, 1). This was "right", whether the world recognized it as virtue or not.

Aristotle used a step-by step procedure in answering the question, "what is the highest goal a human should aspire?", by defining first of all that goal as the "end for which all means are chosen". He determined it to be "happiness" and the means to achieving it "rational activity", since this appeared to him as the only lasting thing in human life. He believed that it was the responsibility of family and society to assure that individuals were "taught good habits" by instruction and reinforcement, until they internalized it and became able to understand the reasons at the base of such practice. From this concept derived the idea of Greek city-state , "devoted itself to the nurture the citizens' souls just as the citizens devoted their duty to protecting the polis" and the excellence of its laws" (p. 33, 2).