| an accident of birth |
30. Nov 2022|21:21 |
|
ancient greek men — who totally dominated greek society — were warriors who prized physical strength and despised weakness and, hence, women. the homeric concept of virtue is radically unlike ours in two important respects. first, virtue — arête — was an achievement, not a state of being; and second, as a consequence, virtue could be achieved by only a lucky few. an accident of birth — being a woman, poor, or a slave — put virtue out of reach. today, we tend to think that virtue may belong to anyone, rich or poor, man or woman, athletic or crippled, because we think of virtue as a psychological state of mind, or of the soul, not as a prize to be won by action. our conception of virtue was developed by the philosophy of stoicism in the last centuries BCE, and was incorporated into and spread by christianity. |
|