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Ancient Greek terms worth reviving

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Re: Ancient Greek terms worth reviving

#241

Post by foundart »

setgree wrote: post #41
adverbly wrote: post #13

I've always liked "akrasia" https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akrasia > Weakness of will to act against one's own better judgement. It's everywhere in modern society, and I'd love to see it called out more.

Jon Elster’s ‘Ulysses and the Sirens’ is about akrasia, more or less; in situations where we know we are likely to act against our own best interests, how do we credibly commit ourselves to doing the right thing, like Ulysses binding himself to the mast? One of the best social science texts I ever read

Thanks for that resource. On doing a bit of digging, it seems that Elster's more recent `Ulysses Unbound` expands on the themes of `Ulysses and the Sirens` and might be a better first read. Are you familiar with it?

Re: Ancient Greek terms worth reviving

#242

Post by com »

sph wrote: post #238
_a_a_a_ wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You shouldn't be happy at a funeral Shouldn't I? I suspect you're just unthinkingly exporting cultural expectations you've absorbed. I don't believe all cultures treat funerals as necessarily sad occasions, and I really don't like being told what I should feel by someone else (although I realise you probably didn't mean it that way). (small edit)

Good observation. As someone raised in a Catholic country, I am still weirded out by the Protestant idea to get together after a funeral to mourn, mingle and eat. (I'm not even sure what you call that) In my mind mourning is a very private and too sad an event to have people around, and there is bound to be cultures where mourning is cause to celebrate, have fun, and enjoy life in all of its beauty.

In English, the social event of mourning with others often with food, drink and sometimes even song, is often called a “wake”.

Re: Ancient Greek terms worth reviving

#243

Post by DoreenMichele »

stavros wrote: post #167
DoreenMichele wrote: post #36

I'm fond of polis, which we do use as part of words like metropolis but not on its own. It's the word for the Greek city-state but also means the citizens or social fabric. It's why we have the two sayings "Man is a political animal" and "Man is a social creature." They are different translations of the idea that "Man is a creature of the polis."

You do also use it on its own, "police".

The word police certainly has its origins or roots in the word polis but it doesn't remotely mean the same thing.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police

I also would think they are pronounced differently, but a quick Google isn't clarifying how polis is pronounced and my two classes of classical Greek taken eons ago aren't sufficient background for me to be confident about my pronunciation of the word.

If anyone could cast light on the pronunciation of polis, that would be cool.

Re: Ancient Greek terms worth reviving

#244

Post by stavros »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #243
stavros wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You do also use it on its own, "police".

The word police certainly has its origins or roots in the word polis but it doesn't remotely mean the same thing. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police I also would think they are pronounced differently, but a quick Google isn't clarifying how polis is pronounced and my two classes of classical Greek taken eons ago aren't sufficient background for me to be confident about my pronunciation of the word. If anyone coul…

Polis is pronounced mostly the same as police, except the stress is on the first syllable.

Re: Ancient Greek terms worth reviving

#245

Post by DoreenMichele »

stavros wrote: post #244
DoreenMichele wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The word police certainly has its origins or roots in the word polis but it doesn't remotely mean the same thing. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police I also would think they are pronounced differently, but a quick Google isn't clarifying how polis is pronounced and my two classes of classical Greek taken eons ago aren't sufficient background for me to be confident about my pronunciation of the word. If anyone coul…

Polis is pronounced mostly the same as police, except the stress is on the first syllable.

I thought the stress would be on the first syllable.

I also thought this means the second syllable should be a short i, consistent with how we pronounce metropolis.

Because police stresses the second syllable, it sounds like ee not a short i. So I didn't readily make the connection between the two words in part because they are spelled different and in part because I don't think they sound alike.

Re: Ancient Greek terms worth reviving

#246

Post by egometry »

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…

This was also the name of the awesome downtown Berkeley gaming store that recently closed down.

RIP

Re: Ancient Greek terms worth reviving

#247

Post by egometry »

sph wrote: post #238
_a_a_a_ wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You shouldn't be happy at a funeral Shouldn't I? I suspect you're just unthinkingly exporting cultural expectations you've absorbed. I don't believe all cultures treat funerals as necessarily sad occasions, and I really don't like being told what I should feel by someone else (although I realise you probably didn't mean it that way). (small edit)

Good observation. As someone raised in a Catholic country, I am still weirded out by the Protestant idea to get together after a funeral to mourn, mingle and eat. (I'm not even sure what you call that) In my mind mourning is a very private and too sad an event to have people around, and there is bound to be cultures where mourning is cause to celebrate, have fun, and enjoy life in all of its beauty.

The "Irish Wake" is this... but _before_ the funeral.

And Ireland is VERY Catholic.

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