transformations pertaining to the understanding of the term areté occurred in the fifth and the fourth centuries BC when the aforementioned ideal began to devaluate.49 The number of citizens able to serve in the ranks of the hoplites decreased significantly as a result of continuous wars since the end of the fifth century.50 With the advancement of technology and tactics of fighting, the army preparation requirements rose as well. They could be met only by the professional army – the mercenary army.51 Valour based on physical fitness and patriotism (areté) was gradually replaced by the ability to apply the technical means of action (techné). The aforesaid changes significantly influenced the attitudes of the citizens of polis. They recognized that the city-state could be defended by others, even by the paid mercenaries who could be foreigners. The fact that citizens deviated from the indicated duty led to a deterioration of patriotism and citizenship of Athenians. In the face of that crisis, one could observe an increased activity of the then writers. The frequently selected leitmotiv of their works was showing examples of the ancestors’ valour, which was to exemplify some kind of paradeigma – a pattern and a principle of action52. This form of literary creation was incorporated into the education methods used both in the period of aristocratic and democratic education. Their core relied on using ←28 | 29→two inseparable elements in the education process: paradeigma and mimesis – a model and imitation.
Following the theorists’ considerations from the fourth century BC, we can see that the significance of arête was expanded. It included the following elements: valour – andreia, theoretical wisdom – phronesis, caution and temperance – sóphrosyné, the sense of justice – dikaiosyné. Thus, areté understood in this way defined the moral perfection of man. The indicated features constituted the canon of civic virtues. Plato emphasized in particular the importance of justice (dikaiosyne).53 It was in justice, in his opinion, that the fullness of arête was included. By extension, striving for justice borne on the grounds of polis became the new force of human education, which was analogous to the chivalrous ideal of valour in war, favoured in the previous aristocratic society.’54 The concept of justice was henceforth at the forefront of civic virtues. It should be stressed at this point that the components of the former Spartan concept of excellence were not removed but were shifted to a higher level55. According to Plato, human happiness depends on whether man follows the principles of reason and justice in his way of conduct. Plato indicated that sóphrosyné and dikaiosyné were closely linked with the human happiness. Happiness was, as of yet, tied to the victory in battle and fame associated with it. Moreover, sóphrosyné and dikaiosyné were particularly valued by Isocrates among the four virtues. He claimed that they were the features of perfect citizens. The two remaining features – andreia and phronesis, may also be the attributes of bad people.56 The new ideal based on a strong sense of justice, penetrated all spheres of the Athenian state in the fourth century BC.
The source of changes in the meaning of areté in the emerging Athenian democracy was also a changing attitude to wealth and the possession of material goods. A richer layer of demos began to grow, next to aristocracy, claiming power in the state.57 This change in ownership relations had also influence on the aristocratic concept of areté. Therefore, separating nobility from the possessed wealth became the more and more frequent practice. People were inclined to let the behaviour decide that a man of noble birth was simply a noble man. It was some kind of the nobility of the spirit. According to the ethics of the democratic ←29 | 30→polis, areté could not depend on the origin or wealth. The confirmation of this principle was isonomia – equal justice under law guaranteeing that all citizens could participate in the state management.
Over time, the Athenian society was less and less stable and uniform. The economic changes that took place in Athens at that time caused that the position of a citizen was no longer determined by the originating status. It facilitated the stratification determined by economic factors and resulted in serious changes in morality. The differences between the old land aristocracy ad the new plutocracy started to blur. The Athenians became increasingly open to granting citizenship to the representatives of various social layers and different professions, however, they always drew their attention to the fact whether that person turned out to be chresimos té polei – whether he did something good to the nation or to the people.58 The terms areté or agathos have pragmatic meaning. Virtue is no longer associated with one origin or another but with an active attitude and acting for the benefit of the polis. In Greece, there was some sort of universal politicization of man, who was required to actively engage in the public life of the state and to be aware of his civic duties. Man had to divide his life into what was private (idion) and what was social (koinon). As of yet, the indicated duties rested on the nobility. It was the nobility that possessed the ability to exercise power. In the new conditions, there was still some reference to the old noble way of education. An ideal of being a speaker of words and a doer of deeds was still the most important goal of life for the citizen of the polis.59 The ancient Greek ideal model of noble culture found its deeper meaning just in the culture of the city-state. It was transferred to the general public there. An aristocratic education became a universally applied means of the formation of a man and a citizen. Thus, after the noble culture, the original polis constituted the next indispensable stage in the process of developing a humanistic ideal of the universal, ethical and political culture.
1.3. PAIDÉIA DURING THE TIME OF THE ATHENIAN DEMOCRACY
One can look for the beginnings of the cultural process called paidéia – the highest physical and spiritual perfection – in the sense of the highest human arête, in the fifth century BC. From that time, the aforementioned perfection has also been quite consciously extended to the spiritual culture.60 The category of ←30 | 31→paidéa is crucial for the understanding of the Greek culture sources because it was organized on a fundamentally different basis than other cultures.
Paidéia (from the Greek word pais – a boy, a child; Latin: educatio, humanitas, cultura) was understood as a comprehensive “cultivation,” rational education of man in the individual and social aspect.61 This term occurred for the first time just in the fifth century BC in the plays of Aeschylus, where it was synonymous with “feeding,” education of children.62 In the broader sense, it denoted a general, human nature-oriented basis of education or an ideal model of education developed by Ancient Greeks and regarded as embracing the whole of mankind.63 This term was used to define both the course and the process of a child’s education as well as its goal and effect. It was about the formation of man from an early age through upbringing and education. The indicated process was closely connected with reading the human nature since the Greeks claimed that one’s susceptibility to education came from nature, whereas the application of appropriate methods, the so-called cultivation of nature – was the work of man called culture. The proper education should help man achieve the superior goal of his life which is the activation of the supreme powers with regard to the supreme subject. This process is very long and difficult. Man, unlike the world of nature, is born as ill-suited to life, and even more to achieve the true purpose of life. Man must learn how to live in the manner tailored to him if he wants to develop the most humane features within himself. Due to the fact that it does not happen automatically, man needs help. It can be obtained through proper education – paidéa. It is therefore the human equipment in proper dispositions for proper action. Such permanent dispositions were called aretai, or virtues becoming like the second nature. The task of paidéa is just to fill the gaps of nature. The classical one had nothing in common with inventing the worlds of value. Culture included everything that man needed in order to pass through the broken passage from nature to a person at the level of action. Putting the crack together is made possible due to reason which enables man to recognize the proper means permitting the genuine personal life. Various inclinations that drive man in different directions are oriented by him at the ultimate personal good. Thanks to education and virtues, this direction takes permanent forms such as, for instance, the character.
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All spheres of human life need ordering. At first, it the sphere of reason itself that must be able to properly read the good, the hierarchy of goods and to select proper means that