arete
(αρετη)
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| (Language: Greek) |
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| Short Description: |
exellence, goodness, virtue |
| Long Description: |
exellence, goodness, virtue; Plotinus makes distinction between the civic virtues ( politikai aretai) and the purificatory virtues (kathartikai aretai); Porphyry adds two other grades – the theoretic virtues ( theoretikai aretai) and the paradigmatic virtues ( paradeigmatikai aretai): the former being that of the soul which beholds nous within itself, the later being the virtue proper to the divine Intellect, Nous, itself; Iamblichus discerns seven grades of virtue which in an ascending order illustrate the anagogic path to the divine: natural, ethical, civic, purificatory, theoretic and paradigmatic virtues are crowned by the hieratic virtues (hieratikai aretai) that are proper to the One – they make the soul godlike ( theoeides) and unite with the First Principle through heurgy. |
| Example(s): |
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| Source(s): |
The Golden Chain: An Anthology of Platonic and Pythagorean Philosophy, by Dr. Algis Uždavinys |
| Notes & References: |
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