Alright, now that I've told my story
about my life as a classical musician and how I (mostly) left it, I'll explain
why I left it. But first, you must understand arête. This is a great
piece by S. Snyder.
Arête: The Greek Idea of Excellence
By S. Snyder
Quick! What's the point of going to
college? Don't think about it; just answer with the first thought that comes to
you.
If you're like
most people, you probably said to get a job. That's not surprising. It's
what the majority of students and many parents see as the point of a college
education. And certainly it's an important aspect that shouldn't be dismissed,
but it can't in itself be the main reason to go to college.
After all,
people get jobs without college degrees. Ah, yes, comes the response, but the
goal is to get a good job. And I respond: "Define good." Now at this
point, someone usually says something like "Good equals $5,000,000 a
year," which means that for him or her earning a lot of money is the
reason for going to college.
But this can't
be the ultimate reason either because money is simply a means to acquiring
something else, and as a means it can't also be an end. Let's face it: a
billionaire on a desert island is unlikely to be satisfied sitting alone on the
beach with his suitcases full of cash.
Okay, so maybe
the point isn't money. Maybe we go to college to get the good jobs that earn us
the money that buys us the things we need to be happy. So, in the end, maybe
the point is happiness. But this isn't it either, because it's quite possible
to be happy without a college degree. In fact, some say ignorance is bliss,
which suggests that people without degrees are happier than those who have
them.
You know, when
it comes right down to it, the only reason for going to college that makes any
kind of sense is the fuzzy notion that college might somehow, in some strange
way, make us better, and that being better is a worthwhile thing in and
of itself. After all, we expect college-educated people to think better, to
express themselves better, and to understand the world around them better.
Indeed, if students aren't in some way better after four years of education, we
usually say that college was wasted on them.
Now step back
and think about this for a minute. The idea that it is possible to better
ourselves is rather an astonishing assumption. So far as we know, house cats,
horse flies and hippos do not assume that self-improvement is a worthwhile
activity. But human beings do. They make this astonishing assumption about
themselves. And guess what. It is also the assumption upon which the entire
structure of education in Western civilization is based.
In our
society, we tend to believe--without any hard proof, mind you-- that we each
have a potential that we can and, more importantly, should work toward
realizing. In fact, most people agree that the best of us are those who strive
to lead lives of excellence, who seek to perform at the peak of our abilities
no matter the circumstances.
But where did
this idea of an individual human potential come from? It can't have come from
Christianity, a religion that views human nature as innately flawed and unable
to perfect itself without divine assistance. After all, the aim of life in
Christianity is not achieving excellence; it's salvation.
No, to locate
the source of our belief that we can be better, we have to look to the Greeks,
for they developed a concept known as Arête. Putting this word into
modern English is difficult. Some translators use the word goodness,
others excellence and still others virtue. However we translate
it, though, it seems to mean something like "being the best it is possible
to be."
Moreover, the
Greek notion of a human arête changed over time. In the Iliad, an
epic tale emerging from the distant Greek past, it is a term associated with
warriors who exemplify bravery, fierceness and physical skill. Characters like
Achilles or Hector represent a nearly perfect realization of humanity in a
war-like, tribal society.
In The
Odyssey, a slightly later epic, arête is used to describe Odysseus,
who combines the warrior-hero's courage with wit, cunning and resourcefulness. Arête
is also used to describe Odysseus's wife, Penelope, who demonstrates that
even misfortune and sorrow can be suffered with excellence.
And lastly,
the Greeks provide us with still another manifestation of arête :
Socrates, a very new and different kind of Greek hero. Socrates was a real
person, a Fifth Century BCE Athenian who has come to symbolize for us the life
dedicated to the pursuit of moral and intellectual excellence.
Last time, of
course, I told you that this class was a seminar in which we would explore two
thematic questions. To remind you, those questions were
What is an
educated person? In other words, what do they know? What can they do? How
should we define one? And just as importantly, am I
one?
one?
And what
responsibilities do educated people have to society? Do they have any? And
if so, what are they?
Found at
http://faculty.grandview.edu/ssnyder/470/Arete.html
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