What is Arete? – Greek Philosophy

What is the definition of Arete?

How does someone live a life of excellence, purpose and fulfillment? The answer is arete.

“And what is good, Phaedrus, And what is not good – Need we ask anyone to tell us these things?” – Socrates

The definition of arete is “excellence”. It’s a Greek concept that can be applied to any context or form. It refers to fulfilling the purpose/function of anything well; being of an extremely high standard.

The word arete has two meanings.

Arete as the Greek Goddess of virtue and knowledge.
Arete is a concept that refers to excellence.

Arete is to be sought in all domains of life. In Greek philosophy, it has been mentioned numerously by Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. Ancient Greek thought says that arete is to be strived for, and rightfully so.

What does it mean to be a person of arete?

You are capable of fulfilling your function as a human being – acting in accordance with virtue.
All of your human faculties have been developed to the highest degree – a strong body, guided by reason and in control of irrational temptations.
You can act with excellent faculties to tackle problems and bring about excellent results – solving problems is what constitutes human existence.

Therefore, a person of arete is a person who is excellent. They maximize their potential.

Why is ARETE an important concept?

Arete is not just a philosophical or Greek concept; it’s a solution to a problem. What if arete is the timeless solution to modern living? What if arete was the weapon to use in the fight against unnecessary suffering?

Is arete the meaning of life?

The Four Cardinal Virtues go hand-in-hand with human excellence. Learn about what they are, and how to adopt them into your life here: What are the Four Cardinal Virtues? – Greek Philosophy

Arete Gives Us An Aim

Most people are either:

Aimless.
Have an aim, but are chasing the wrong thing (immediate gratification, pleasure, status or money).

What should we be aiming at? Happiness? Purpose? Virtue? A “why” to beat any “how?”

These are all valid targets in their own right, and each have their own list of pros and cons. But what if your only target was this:

“To become the best version of myself.”

Such a target would improve your own life, and all the lives of those around you.

Life is a jigsaw puzzle; we are all pieces that work together to make the big picture. Improving yourself will improve life in general for everyone.

Arete Is A State Of Mind

“Virtue (arete), then, is a habit or trained faculty of choice, the characteristic of which lies in moderation or observance of the mean relatively to the persons concerned, as determined by reason, i.e., by the reason by which the prudent man would determine it.” – Aristotle

Doing something well does not mean you embody arete. It’s actually a disposition; a persons internal characteristics or qualities.

A human being that expresses arete can do so in everything they do: thinking, acting, feeling, moving. Their human facilities are well developed. This means that they’ve the tools to fix any problem effectively, and to the highest of standards.

So, how should one properly go about cultivating a disposition of excellence?

How To Embody Arete In 3 Steps

1) Reflect And Plan

Analyze your strengths and weaknesses.

What areas do you want to improve in? What virtues do you need to cultivate?

The Four Cardinal Virtues of wisdom, courage, temperance and justice; these are a good starting point to build off from.

If you’d like to learn more about how to cultivate The Four Cardinal Virtues in your own life, click here: The Four Cardinal Virtues – How To Become Good

How To Plan:

Write down a list of your goals.
Write down what you value most in your life.
Write down the type of person you want to be.
What would this person do on a day-to-day basis?
How would they act, think and feel?
Write down the type of person you want to avoid being at all costs.
Repeat the other two steps again.

In order to improve yourself, you must be somewhat conscious of who “you” truly is. Understand where your skills are lacking and make a plan of attack.

2) Start Acting

“Like action creates like disposition.” – Aristotle

Arete is a way of life. It is not confined to mere actions.

Rather, it’s the source of said actions.

Habit is the key to success. You must start acting in accordance with who it is that you want to become.

Make a list of the habits you want to build:

Smile to everyone I see.
Appreciate, encourage and praise someone/something in every conversation I have.
Stand up straight with my shoulders back.
Read x pages a day to cultivate wisdom.
Write x words a day to straighten out my thinking.
Exercise for x sessions a week (gym/running/jiu jitsu etc.)
Do one thing that scares me everyday to cultivate courage.
Be balanced when it comes to eating junk food, limiting myself to 50grams of chocolate a day, in order to cultivate moderation.
Never be scared of speaking the truth, and always doing the right thing no matter how much it may hurt in order to cultivate justice.
Focus on doing one thing as hard as I can, with as much focus and intensity as possible for x minutes a day to cultivate arete. This will allow me to embody excellence and deliberation in my state of mind.

These are just a few ideas of what you could do as a start. Write down more, less or change the list entirely.

Be precise in how you want to live. Leave no stone unturned.

Be intentional in your movements. Be deliberate in your speech and intentions. Focus.

Do everything with the highest amount of concentration and effort possible.

Remind yourself that your thoughts alone get you nowhere; action moves the world forward.

Understand your limits and find the point of balance. Stay away from excess and deficiency in everything you do. Find the sweet spot.

If you’d like to learn more about how to live a balanced life using Aristotle’s concept of The Golden Mean, click here: How To Find Moderation With Aristotle’s Golden Mean

3) Keep Learning and Changing

Ask yourself these questions at the end of every week:

What went well?
What didn’t go so well?
What can I improve upon next week?

Now, go back to the list you made in Step 1. Then, ask yourself these questions:

Do I still want to become this person I have defined for myself?
Have any of my goals changed?
Have any of my values changed?
Who do I want to be next week?
What are some achievable steps that I can take next week in order to get me there?

Extract as much knowledge as possible from everything that you do.

Wisdom is gained by extracting vital information from past experiences. This can be done through reflection and careful analysis, or, by reading about other people’s experiences in books (because this is what books are in some fundamental sense).

The wise take what is useful from the past and they use it to adapt and become more efficient.

Do this over a long period of time. It’s an unfortunate truth, but a life of excellence cannot be built in a week. Life is the keyword here. Life.

It’s a complete cycle. Not only that, but you’re all in no matter what you do. You’d might as well strive to do something noble and worthwhile with the time you’ve been given.

Aim to be of service to others. Fulfill your purpose. Find whatever it is that grips you; aim towards it with everything that you have. Maybe its friends and family; gym and jiu jitsu; reading and writing.

Strive for excellence in everything you do. This is the goal of arete.

Become who it is that you should be.

Arete is one of the many potential solutions to contemporary problems.

Now, go out and make something of yourself.

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