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Weltanschauung = way of looking at the world
Apologies are due the various authors whose style and, more
particularly, whose Weltanschauung I have here attempted to
reproduce; thanks are due The Bookman for permission to reprint
such of these chapters as appeared in that publication. I give
both freely. D. O. S.
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wwh: Ya' think we could twist two threads and discuss weltanschauung and arete here? Could develop into a deep philosophical discussion, but I'll need tsuwm to define philosophy for me! Wouldn't want to appear to be random...
Or we could discuss "The World According to Rottweiler: One Canine's Weltanschauung"
WW
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you want to talk about the philosophy of mountain climbing??
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I like the Tennyson bit: "Speak truth, right wrong, and to thine own self be true, else wherefore live." But there are some things left out that I cannot trippingly supply.
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old hand
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to thine own self be true
That's from Hamlet.
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"'to thine own self be true' - That's from Hamlet." I do not doubt it, JazzO. But I would have rather heard some of your ideas about "arete", and your contemporaries estimation or mockery of it.
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Well, there's been Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and Annie Dillard's down there by Tinker Creek.... I'd say you could have the philosophy of just about anything you want if it's your world view and you've got a good grasp on arete, not to mention on the pitons.
I was going to develop a philosophy around the little fluttering butterly icon that flew at the top of my computer page, but, when downloading some dadburned download and getting messages I didn't understand, I somehow have changed my default to Netscape Navigator for MSN...and the butterfly is gone. Kaput! And all my web site favorites have flown away with it! And this happening to one who only last week watched her entire computer crash!!!! Not that I'm complaining or anything, but I'm complaining.
Best regards,
WW
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How 'bout going interthreadual by saying that before gaining the arete you might have an encounter with an arethusa, a wood nymph who fleeing the advances of the river god Alpheus was changed into a fountain. (arethusa from the GK Arethousa)
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Highest Greek value? Arete, we translate TERRIBLY as "excellence."
a) Note the root--ares, war, something that comes out in battle, as it does (Alvin York, Roger Young).
b) A display of arete is called an aristeia, as in Iliad V when Diomedes cuts down half the Trojan army and a couple of gods too
dumb to get out of the way.
c) Just to cover myself--this term got absorbed into other uses, e.g. Plato's, but that was a transference of its original military
significance.
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enthusiast
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I would have rather heard some of your ideas about "arete"
"Arete" was a "Weltanschauung" to the Greeks, wwh, as we can see from this extract:
Excellence
To the ancient Greeks excellence is a goal to be pursued in all aspects of life. The attainment of perfection, of the complete realization of one's potential, is called arete (virtue).
The buildings of the Athenian Acropolis are good examples of the achievement of arete (virtue) in architecture. The plan of the basic Temple form actually changed little over the 800 year period of Greek civilization. The ancient Greeks were a traditional people who avoided change for its own sake. They simply refined the basic Temple form. They looked for the best proportions of the various elements which together make up the Temple. Among the 300-odd Temples left to us by 800 years of Greek civilization many were smaller than the Parthenon and many were larger. But we have come to believe that the Parthenon best represents the Greek ideal of arete (virtue).
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arête : n [F, lit., fish bone, fr. LL arista, fr. L, beard of grain]: a sharp-crested ridge in rugged mountains
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Well, if that isn't a bit of going around your elbow to get to your thumb.
From moral probity, to fishbones, to "beard of grain" (whuuzat?--those prickly things that stick out like egret's feathers), to "sharp-crested ridge in rugged mountains" (what's a sharp-crested ridge on a milksop, wimpy mountain?), which takes us back with a leap like a goat to the pinnacle footed by one possessed of arete...
When I look upon a bearded grain,
I see mountain ridges and philosophy.
Such are the travels that I take,
Bootless to all, save those in my company.
Boot regards,
WordWoof
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And how might we incorporate more "arete" in our Weltanschauung?
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Arete is earring in Spanish.[pirate] 
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And how might we incorporate more "arete" in our Weltanschauung?...
A sober examination of humility and strength of character could be a starting place...
I've heard more people express changes in how they view the world rather than a view that has remained firmly wedged in place from start to where they are. I don't mean to imply by "start," "from birth." I mean from the start of their adult years to where they are in a later decade or decades. What I think would be interesting to hear, and probably not here on this board, would be the stories of people who feel they have lost values, lost some of their best qualities of character as they have matured, and, in contrast, those tales of people who are more confident that they have matured in qualities they may value.
I've mentioned Boswell's biography of Samuel Johnson on another thread, and will here, too, in light of this subject. Johnson wrote a deeply personal self-examination each Easter, if I remember correctly. These notes he destroyed. These confessions and expressions of how he sought divine grace to lead him toward rectification and improvement I count as a loss to us who may have benefitted from examining Johnson's spiritual growth.
But, to return to weltanschauung. What is included in one's world view? What would be the general features of such a definition? Views on immortality? Compassion? Ego? Courage? Charity? Service? Humour? Marital fidelity? Freedom? Fortitude? Happiness? Family? Health? Religious tolerance? Worship? Virtue? Loyalty? Sacrifice? Synchronicity? Risk?
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A "Weltanschauung" means looking at the whole world, including all the things in WW's last paragraph, and more, such as the Greek central theme of "Moderation in all things".
I tried a dozen times but could not achieve a satisfactory conclusion to the above sentence.
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