I’m not so naïf as to think that the ancient Greeks paved the road to happiness for the rest of us by the concepts they developed and expounded. But when I encounter a term or concept among modern thinkers that seems to me potentially helpful, I make myself ask how the Greeks would talk about it - what words, images or myths might apply in their culture. The contrast of cultures, I often find, is revealing about both the Greeks and us.
But when the work of Viktor Frankl and others on “tragic optimism’ (see last blog post) led me to think about resilience, I was stumped. I could find no close analogy to resilience in the strong sense of the word – not endurance or the like, but that elusive ability to pick yourself up when you’ve been knocked down, and turn out better for the experience.
I don’t find a word that is quite right for it in ancient Greek, nor passage that explore resilience in this sense. Yet, surely that highly competitive culture; had a discourse for exploring it. What am I missing?
May 17, 2021
But when the work of Viktor Frankl and others on “tragic optimism’ (see last blog post) led me to think about resilience, I was stumped. I could find no close analogy to resilience in the strong sense of the word – not endurance or the like, but that elusive ability to pick yourself up when you’ve been knocked down, and turn out better for the experience.
I don’t find a word that is quite right for it in ancient Greek, nor passage that explore resilience in this sense. Yet, surely that highly competitive culture; had a discourse for exploring it. What am I missing?
May 17, 2021