Thursday, September 7, 2023
Day 4 of the School continued with the ancient Greek language session, in a foray of various avatars of virtue from a philokalical and philosophical perspective.
Rev. Ștefan Zară (Archdiocese of Bucharest) focused on the personality of Saint John of Damascus (676-749/750), a very influential figure in Byzantium. He read and translated a less-known work, Περὶ ἀρετῶν καὶ κακιῶν, ψυχικῶν καὶ σωματικῶν („On the virtues and the vices of soul and body”). The author distinguishes five innate virtues of the soul (intellect, reason, opinion, fantasy and sense-perception) and five virtues of the body (the five senses), from which derive other virtues. The virtue is not a psychological quality, but the conformity to the will of God.
PhD c. Cristian Şimon (University of Bucharest) read the introduction of another essay written by Plutarch and collected in "Moralia", titled "περὶ τῆς ἠθικῆς ἀρετῆς (On Moral Virtue)", which focus on the two parts of the soul: the rational and the irrational, echoing the ideas of Aristotle and other previous philosophers. Moral virtue arises when the rational part controls the irrational one.
