ARETE - Raising the Bar

SELF-KNOWLEDGE: The famous Socratic paradox, "Virtue is knowledge," in Greek, "Areté is knowledge," is the foundation of both Socratic and Platonic philosophy. The highest human potential is knowledge and all other human abilities are derived from this central capacity. Aristotle also locates the highest human potential in knowledge: theoretical knowledge and self-knowledge.

Volition drives our moral choices. Aristotle used the word to indicate the only thing fully in our power, control of our own volition (prohairesis) which exercises the faculty of choice that we use to judge our impressions. The importance of prohairesis (will, volition, or choice), people can choose rationally how to react to impressions. In Stoicism it exerts a power that allows people to choose how they will react to impressions rationally, rather than be carried away by impressions.

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Arete is an ancient Greek concept for the 'spirit of virtue,' natural excellence without necessarily being heroic, a usually flawed archetype. Even if it cannot be taught, perhaps it can be cultivated from within, building character. It's time to reclaim the high-ground of our national honor for all Americans by redefining what that means. Partisan groups that lay claim to "values" should be sure they are prepared to uphold them.

This spirit of arete was the basis of the Human Potential Movement, a non-miliant version of "be all you can be." Arete shares a root with the term 'aristocrat,' meaning naturally noble. Phronesis, the concept of practical wisdom, was a cornerstone of Aristotle's political and ethical theory. In modern life, all acts are political acts, therefore, the arete of the citizen has a holistic effect. Our personal acts affect our whole lives and culture.

SPIRIT, STRENGTH & SKILL: For Aristotle, phronesis is "an adult power of insight into practical matters, cultivated and developed by experience -- a kind of sophia, gnosis, or inherent wisdom. Quality is based on inherent qualities. It is the root of being oneself, well-being, thriving, fortitude, health. It is also the root of justice and wellness in a healthy state.

ROOT OF ETHICS: This optimal action potential or excellence emerges spontaneously as goodness, virtue, ethics -- the quality of being the best - but without the self-serving narcissistic taint of toxic egotism. It is not am overweening fight for personal glory. Prudence in political cunning means canniness, instead of ambitious power-ridden competition, working with natural rhythms - nature's rhythms.

CULTURE HEROES. The phenomenon of Barrack Obama is like the Greek hero. The successfl political hero wraps himself in the mythic mantle of his nation. To the people, the hero is a symbol of a particular ideal. The prophet whose vision and prophecy surpasses the mundane and overtakes the reality is the hero. His time and sacrifices in the pursuit of the those ideals are consuming.

Politics is simply that which concerns the community. Exemplars silently challenge us to live up to their example to the extent we are capable, rather than relinquishing personal power. True statesmen aren't just characters on the world stage, they have character that embodies the positive potential Zeitgeist of the times.

We no longer expect modern heroes to be perfect. Sometimes weaknesses can be turned into virtues by overcoming adversity, especially those of youthful folly. Arete is a quality of one's ethical and essential nature beyond social and political skill that results in positive strides for the community.

VIRTUES are not inherently devoid of choice. We can learn to recognize those things over which we have absolte influence and those we cannot control. Naturally expressing the virtue of the group, arete encompasses seven virtues: kindness, sincerity, passion, justice, courage, perseverance and growth.

Those who possess this inherent nature are recognizable without awards. True statesmen have arete, which shows in measured choices that reflect the essence of the moment, that embrace the empowering opportunities of that integral moment, without personal ego getting in the way.

In this sense we are all artists, composers of or lives or in the freedom of being to express our personal genius, as creaors and designers of our own unique perspective, our essential nature, our own constant quality of energy expressed in our personal choices, even when improbable. Even the failures of our chosen goals, immediately makes alternative action viable.

Thus, our personal and social status is mutable, moldable. The importance of our actions is that we can chose to be more effective in the face of challenge, conflict and difficulty. this is the source of value and meaning. In the Socratic paradox, 'arete is knowledge,' about oneself and one's place in the environment -- a western reflection of the I Ching's "superior man." Contemplation, perspective and simple awareness in the moment are among the highest human abilities and foster contentment and happiness.

In philosophy, Prohairesis is a faculty not only able to evaluate all other faculties but one impossible to enslave or subordinate. Will, volition, intention, choice, moral choice, moral purpose, moral character, soul’s disposition is not a choice, a pre-choice or a judgement, but the faculty that distinguishes human beings from all other creatures.

We are the arbiters of which future we choose. when we are making a real choice there isn't one future but many - at least two.  each future has a probability universe just like the cat paradox before we open the box. conscious free will is a way of opening the box in a certain kind of way. that is by taking the shady path or the rocky path we cause one of the probability futures to become the real one. we aren't being sucked towards either future. nor are we sucked towards THE future. generally we are splitting the wave function dramatically into myriads of possible futures - all of us at once - and trying to make the best free-will interventions we can for our own survival.

In the West virtue ethics was the prevailing approach to ethical thinking in the ancient and medieval periods. The tradition suffered an eclipse during the early modern period, as Aristotelianism fell out of favour in the West. Virtue theory returned to prominence in Western philosophical thought in the twentieth century, and is today one of the three dominant approaches to normative theories (the other two being deontology and consequentialism).

Although concern for virtue appears in several philosophical traditions, notably the Chinese, in the West the roots of the tradition lie in the work of Plato and Aristotle, and even today the tradition’s key concepts derive from ancient Greek philosophy. These concepts include arete (excellence or virtue), phronesis (practical or moral wisdom), and eudaimonia (flourishing).

Eudaimonia is a state variously translated as 'well-being', 'good fortune' or 'happiness', although in the context of virtue ethics, the expression 'human flourishing' might be more appropriate. Eudaimonia in this sense is not a subjective, but an objective, state. It characterizes the well-lived life, irrespective of the emotional state of the person experiencing it. According to Aristotle, the most prominent exponent of eudaimonia in the Western philosophical tradition, eudaimonia is the proper goal of human life. It consists of exercising the characteristic human quality -- reason -- as the soul's most proper and nourishing activity. Aristotle, like Plato before him, argued that the pursuit of eudaimonia was an activity that could only properly be exercised in the characteristic human community-- the polis or city-state.

Although eudaimonia was first popularized by Aristotle, it now belongs to the tradition of virtue theories generally. For the virtue theorist, eudaimonia describes that state achieved by the person who lives the proper human life, an outcome which can be reached by practicing the virtues. A virtue is a habit or quality that allows the bearer to succeed at his, her, or its purpose.

Like much of the Western tradition, virtue theory seems to have originated in ancient Greek philosophy . Discussion of what were known as the Four Cardinal Virtues - prudence, justice, fortitude and temperance - can be found in Plato's Republic. The virtues also figure prominently in Aristotle's moral theory (see below). The Greek idea of the virtues was later incorporated into Christian moral theology. During the scholastic period, the most comprehensive consideration of the virtues from a theological perspective was provided by St. Thomas Aquinas in his Summa Theologiae and his Commentaries on the Nicomachean Ethics.

The tradition was eclipsed in the Renaissance, and throughout the early modern period, when the Aristotelian synthesis of ethics and metaphysics fell into disfavour. Though the tradition receded into the background of European philosophical thought in these centuries, the term "virtue" remained current during this period, and in fact appears prominently in the tradition of classical republicanism or classical liberalism.

Non-Western moral and religious philosophies, such as Confucianism, also incorporate ideas that may appear similar to those developed by the ancient Greeks. Like ancient Greek ethics, Chinese ethical thought makes an explicit connection between virtue and statecraft. However, where the Greeks focused on the interior orientation of the soul, Confucianism's definition of virtue emphasizes interpersonal relations.

Other proponents of virtue theory, notably Alasdair MacIntyre, respond to this objection by arguing that any account of the virtues must indeed be generated out of the community in which those virtues are to be practiced: the very word 'ethics' implies 'ethos'. That is to say that the virtues are, and necessarily must be, grounded in a particular time and place.

The aretaic turn is a movement in contemporary moral philosophy and ethics to emphasize character and human excellence or virtue, as opposed to moral rules or consequences. This movement has been extended to other philosophical disciplines, including epistemology, political philosophy, and jurisprudence. The word "aretaic" is derived from the ancient Greek word arete, meaning excellence or virtue. "Aretaic" thus means "of or pertaining to virtue or excellence."