On the Original Meaning of Virtue and Its Contemporary Significance—Rediscovering the Spirit of Homer

Abstract

According to traditional categorization, the history of Western ethical thought encompasses under the name of ethics three major traditions: virtue theory, deontology, and utilitarianism. This categorization certainly has its significance. However, this paper seeks to go back to the epic age, to start from the difference of “virtue” presented by Homer and Hesiod and the different traditions opened up by them, to try to clarify the original meaning of “virtue” and its turn, and then to find out what is contained in such a way of dividing the traditions of ethics for contemporary thinking. In this way, it seeks to identify the insights into contemporary life contained in such a delineation of the ethical tradition. The paper begins with an analysis of the everyday meanings of virtue, goes back to the Hesiodic tradition of ethicalizing virtue, then to the Homeric spirit, which is distinct from the ethicalization of virtue, and finally, on the basis of the clarification of the Homeric spirit, argues for the contemporary relevance of the Homeric spirit.