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Ancient Greek terms worth reviving

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Re: Ancient Greek terms worth reviving

#181

Post by obfuscator »

wirrbel wrote: post #156
obfuscator wrote: post #153

Ancient Greek was one of the best courses I had in university. It changed my view on language and western thinking quite a lot. My favorite words are μαθηματικὴ (mathematike): If I remember correctly, it means 1. learning, 2. letter or book and 3. "everything there is to know (for certain)". χαίρε (chaire): Used as a greeting, literally "be happy!" Also it is funny that βαίνω (baino) means: I am walking, while "Bein"…

Cognate to Bein is „bone“ in English btw.

Yup! The German word Bein means both: Leg and Bone. Ethymology is a fascinating subject, for sure.

Re: Ancient Greek terms worth reviving

#183

Post by komali2 »

jdthedisciple wrote: post #166
komali2 wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah, then, this sounds to me of an example of misaligned ethics (you and example overweight person). I suppose you could argue about the health and longevity benefits of being low bodyfat, restricting calories, regular cardiovascular activities, these are scientifically documented... however , allow me to assume for a second that you haven't maximized these to their utmost. Do you, personally, fast to the maximum reco…

Obv I wasn't talking about going up to strangers and telling them to put the fork down. Furthermore: your questions are about ethics, which mine may differ from yours. I wouldn't be offended by such questions and in fact I could quite vividly debate all of them. However I may be concerned over someone's weight especially if they are close to me, for the objectively indisputable reason of health.

> objectively indisputable reason of health

Sure, but will you engage the first part of my comment then, regarding degrees of healthiness, and the health choices you may not be making?

I'm basically arguing both that it's not as indisputable as you seem to say, and, that you may be missing the full picture here.

Re: Ancient Greek terms worth reviving

#184

Post by gjm11 »

pjungwir wrote: post #25

These are great suggestions. Adding these words to your own internal vocabulary is totally worth it for self-reflection. Less seriously, a grammatical construction I wish we had in English is the Latin future passive participle, typically ending in -ndus, -nda, -ndum. It means that something needs/ought to be done. For instance "Amanda" is "she who must be loved." So if someone asks you why your feature isn't in prod…

The construction works best with words of actual classical origin. When dealing with a supermarket delivery I do sometimes refer to the things that need to go into the fridge as the "refrigeranda".

(There are some fairly ordinary English words derived from this construction. The agenda is those things that need to be done. The legend (of a map, graph, etc.) is the stuff you need to read.)

Re: Ancient Greek terms worth reviving

#186

Post by dmreedy »

stavros wrote: post #164
dmreedy wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the subject of grammar, Greek grammar (ancient? I assume this one has carried into modernity) has a handy construction I like in the form of the particles μέν and δέ, used to highlight counterpoint/point through something closer to grammar than word semantics. You might see it translated as "on the one hand x, on the other hand y" or "while x, y" or "x, but y", in English, it loses a lot of its punch. Like the ver…

It's more "but then", no? As in, "πάταξον μεν, άκουσον δε" ("hit me, but then listen to me")?

I never got too too far into the language, so I absolutely believe there are more layers and variances to the meaning than the basic glosses I learned! But that feels like it fits in the counterpoint/point kind of framework, I think? Just with an additional kind of "temporal" or "ordering" connotation.

Re: Ancient Greek terms worth reviving

#187

Post by fipar »

v4dok wrote: post #136
tony_cannistra wrote: post #8

I have been several times confused by the word "arete" - because in French (arête) it's a kind of rock formation and has been taken up by the rock climbing community, and in Greek (ἀρετή) it's "excellence." There's a coffee shop near me, attached to and co-operated by a climbing gear store, called arête. The proximity to the climbing store suggests one interpretation, but it is an excellent coffee shop.

Αρετή is more than excellence. Philosophers of the time go quite in length about its meaning, its a mix of excellence, honour, good, nobiety(?). I admittedly have hard time finding exact synonyms in english, but the point is that αρετή according to I think Aristoteles (need fact checking) is the ultimate virtue to strive for.

In Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance, Pirsig (or perhaps one should say Phaedrus, his former self from before he got electroshock therapy) stumbles upon arete while trying to define quality.

I found his two books very interesting and I had not heard of arete until reading him, even though I had read Homer (in Spanish).

Re: Ancient Greek terms worth reviving

#188

Post by kubanczyk »

afunk wrote: post #115

From a fun book I have “Philosophy in 40 Ideas” Eudaimonia THIS IS AN ANCIENT GREEK WORD, normally translated as 'fulfilment', particularly emphasised by the philosopher Aristotle. It deserves wider currency because it corrects the shortfalls in one of the most central terms in our contemporary idiom: happiness. The Ancient Greeks resolutely did not believe that the purpose of life was to be happy; they proposed that…

> suffering physically or mentally, overburdened and in a tetchy mood. Many of life's most worthwhile projects will, at points, be quite at odds with contentment, but may be worth pursuing nevertheless. Henceforth, we shouldn't try to be happy

It's a non-sequitur if I've ever seen one. Although I agree with the idea, it's a disservice to present it with "There's a fancy word which means [...] Henceforth, you should do as I say."

Re: Ancient Greek terms worth reviving

#189

Post by nonethewiser »

afunk wrote: post #115

From a fun book I have “Philosophy in 40 Ideas” Eudaimonia THIS IS AN ANCIENT GREEK WORD, normally translated as 'fulfilment', particularly emphasised by the philosopher Aristotle. It deserves wider currency because it corrects the shortfalls in one of the most central terms in our contemporary idiom: happiness. The Ancient Greeks resolutely did not believe that the purpose of life was to be happy; they proposed that…

I fully agree with you but I do think many people are just speaking generally when they talk about wanting to live a happy life.

Obviously one should not always be happy. You shouldn't be happy at a funeral. You should also have cause to go to a funeral (having friends, family, etc.). You should also do things you might hate or cause pain because long term they are good. Studying, running, etc. Life if full of these struggles and they are good.

But there is also a common hedonistic misunderstanding where people seek pleasure, avoid pain, and think it will lead to happiness, or fulfillment, or however you want to characterize a "good" life. I see this a lot in the "self-care" advocates who justify unhealthy behavior by positioning it as championing some self-diagnosed mental health cause. It often looks like "I'm going to ignore my responsibilities because I feel bad and people shouldn't question me because I am the full authority on anything I categorize as my mental health."

Re: Ancient Greek terms worth reviving

#190

Post by koheripbal »

nonethewiser wrote: post #189
afunk wrote: post #115

From a fun book I have “Philosophy in 40 Ideas” Eudaimonia THIS IS AN ANCIENT GREEK WORD, normally translated as 'fulfilment', particularly emphasised by the philosopher Aristotle. It deserves wider currency because it corrects the shortfalls in one of the most central terms in our contemporary idiom: happiness. The Ancient Greeks resolutely did not believe that the purpose of life was to be happy; they proposed that…

I fully agree with you but I do think many people are just speaking generally when they talk about wanting to live a happy life. Obviously one should not always be happy. You shouldn't be happy at a funeral. You should also have cause to go to a funeral (having friends, family, etc.). You should also do things you might hate or cause pain because long term they are good. Studying, running, etc. Life if full of these…

It's important that we cultivate a language of words with more precise meanings rather than always trying to interpolate what the writer meant using their context.

A better language and a better society has a more sophisticated set of words to communicate with.

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