From: Elizaphanian (Elizaphanian@members.v21.co.uk)
Date: Mon Nov 11 2002 - 15:32:09 GMT
Hi Davor,
I'm much more familiar with what eudaimonia meant; kalokagathia I'm not
familiar with - something about beautiful goodness? (Kalon I think means
something like 'value', although with particular connotations of beauty.
Agatha are 'good things'.) Sounds like a name for Quality itself, rather
than the specifically human goods that I think are covered in eudaimonia.
But you've got me intrigued - is it a special term for Aristotle?
~~~
Having written that, I did a quick Google search.
There is no universal prescription on how to come close to the ideal of
Kalokagathia, how to reach one's harmony. Every human being is different, so
everyone needs a different way to accomplish it. Perhaps this is the reason
there are no principles prescribed for accomplishing Kalokagathia in antique
literature. The ideal of Kalokagathia does not show us any hero standing in
front of us whom we should resemble. Its central theme is a movement, a
never-ending care for harmonizing both dimensions of an individual -
transcendental and animal. Dichotomy of these two basic dimensions and the
tension between them only shows us the point at which harmony is to be
found. It shows us the point at which a whole human being arises and which
tries to prevent escape to either extreme - an escape to the mind - which in
fact means a wish for death, as Plato says in his dialogue Phaidon (8), or
an escape to materialism, which considers everything to be a mere material
object. Kalokagathia means harmony of the body and mind, but these two
words - the body and the mind - are only our constructs, which help us to
understand a man more deeply. On the other hand they can mislead us to
dualistic approaches to him, for in the end, a human being is always a
whole, a unity, containing the two dimensions. And while scrutinizing and
dividing him, we should keep in our mind his unity.
Link: http://www.sport.gov.gr/2/24/243/2431/24314/243144/paper14.html
Sam
www.elizaphanian.v-2-1.net/home.html
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