http://www.obu.edu/famcom/ServiceLearning/ServiceLearningConference/bass.htm
"It was Socrates, you may recall, who, according to Plato, asserted the thesis that virtue is knowledge. Developing this thesis, Plato contends that there is objectively a good life, both for the individual and for the polis, or city-state. Indeed, for him, there is a clear connection between the virtuous citizen and the virtuous state. This understanding of virtue stands apart from mere opinions and preferences. The good life can be made the object of systematic study. It may be defined by methodical intellectual process, and then intelligently pursued. I submit that the somewhat shaky foundations of the enterprise of social science can be found in this problematical insight.
I wonder if any etymologists in the audience are acquainted with the origins of the pejorative label, idiot, defined as a mentally deficient person. We can trace the term back to Middle English; and from there to Old French, idiote; and then to Latin, idiota, referring to an ignorant person. The penultimate link is to the Greek, idiotes; and here is where I find the relevance of this exercise. An idiotes, you see, was a private person, one who did not take part in the activities of the polis, its politics, if you will. For the record, the final link is also Greek: idios, meaning peculiar, or private, and the basis for our prefix, idio, as in idiom, or idiosyncracy."
>The German is Idiotismus, but the real reference is to Attic Greek, where it
>means isolation, nonparticipation in the community. In Aristotle, an idiot
>is someone who fails to patyicipoate in the life of the polis. --jks
>
>
>>At 01:17 PM 3/12/01 -0500, Doug Henwood wrote:
>>>kelley wrote:
>>>
>>>>calling it combat pay is simply reproducing the very prejudices that make
>>>>it combat pay in the first place. the lack of physicians in rural areas
>>>>has everything to do with prestige, status, biases reinforced in medical
>>>>training, etc. . as just one example.
>>>
>>>Don't forget the idiocy of rural life!
>>>
>>>Doug
>>
>>idiote, in the greek sense--that is what i've always argued! but i don't
>>really know and i've been meaning to ask for three years now. those more
>>familiar with german -- has it been the case that his term here was
>>translated badly. i'm guessing others have had this conversation before.
>>
>>kelley
>>
>
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