Appearances of Ethos in Political Thought: The Dimension of Practical Reason by Sophia Hatzisavvidou

Author:Sophia Hatzisavvidou [Hatzisavvidou, Sophia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Philosophy, History & Theory, Democracy, Political Ideologies, Political Science, Political
ISBN: 9781783483143
Google: duHaDwAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 50339480
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Published: 2016-08-04T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 4

Resourcefulness

So far I have visited various manifestations of ēthos from antiquity to modernity. This scrutiny has enabled me to outline the shifts of the meaning of the concept, as well as a solid background for my argument. Drawing on poets, philosophers, rhetoricians, sociologists, and political theorists I have demonstrated how the original, topological meaning of ēthos as dwelling place fell into oblivion, whereas Aristotle’s definition of ēthos as character and the sociological identification of ēthos with the domain of the affect and the aesthetic prevail in academic and public discourse today. I began to make my contribution to the relevant literature in the previous chapter, where I returned to the archaic meaning of ēthos-as-topos in order to formulate a refined account of ēthos that forges a political engagement with the world and its exigencies. I outlined ēthos as a form of dynamic dwelling that is infused by care and justice and I discussed how this proves pertinent to the task of forging a more balanced engagement with the scheme of things. Thus understood, ēthos is the assemblage of one’s way of thinking, conducting, and making sense of the world. Essentially, I argue that ēthos establishes one’s humanity, defines one’s humanism, insofar as it enables her to affirm and engage the scheme of things in a more responsive way, urging her to be disposed to transform it towards a more just direction. In the sense proposed here, as dwelling, ēthos is neither a personal ethic nor a collective ethical bond; furthermore, it is neither a stable trait nor a set of faculties. It is formed and informed as one engages the world politically and it manifests both on the personal and on the collective level, through individual and collective actions and practices.

In this chapter, my aim is to further elaborate on my formulation of ēthos as dwelling. To do so, I bring in two ideas that I discussed in Chapter 2, but I left suspended in the previous chapter: kairos and ‘‘agōn’’. Both ideas are integral to my understanding of ēthos, since I find that they have a decisive role in the arrangement of the scheme of things and that, therefore, they are crucial factors in any attempt to transform any current arrangement. To engage the world while seeking to transform it, I will argue shortly, is to employ a certain form of practical reason, a particular way of operating, which helps one to relate to kairos and to succeed in the contest against the challenges that she encounters. The category of practical reason participates in my understanding of ēthos, not least because it enacts and substantiates one’s caring and just engagement with the scheme of things.

Like my notion of ēthos, I excavate my understanding of practical reasoning from the archaic era and the writings of poets and early thinkers, who narrate stories of heroes and anti-heroes, but also of creatures of the animal kingdom that explicate the particular form of operating that I argue for here. My focus, though,

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