Where it sits
Excellence relative to a function — which is why the question 'what are you for?' has to come first.
Tell it apart
| Aspect | Arete | Virtue |
|---|---|---|
| Applies to objects | Yes | Rarely, but yes |
| Register | Excellence | Moral |
| Measured against | Your function | A standard |
| Root | Traditionally aristos | Latin virtus |
'Virtue' is the conventional translation and the main source of confusion — it sounds moral and slightly prim. Aretē is closer to excellence or peak performance, and applies to horses and knives as readily as to people. Something can have arete without having any moral standing whatsoever.
What it doesn't mean
It means functional excellence, and it applies to objects. Many things, natural or artificial, have their particular aretē — there is the excellence of a horse and the excellence of a knife. A sharp knife has arete. Translating it as 'virtue' imports a moral narrowing the Greek doesn't have, and some Greek conceptions of human excellence sit awkwardly with the moral virtues entirely.
Aristotle's word is hexis, and 'habit' points the wrong way. A hexis is a condition you keep up — it lasts because you go on exerting it. Habit implies the opposite: something that runs without you once trained in. And since the right amount of anything depends on the situation, acting the same way regardless is exactly what the doctrine of the mean warns against.
What it really means
A knife can have arete.
That single fact clears up most of the confusion around this word. Arete is usually translated virtue, which makes it sound moral and slightly prim. What it actually means is excellence at your characteristic function — and Greek applies it freely to horses, knives and eyes. The arete of a knife is sharpness. Nothing ethical is happening.
The root looks like it makes the logic visible: aretē has traditionally been linked to aristos, best — the same word inside aristocracy, rule of the best — though modern reconstructions put the two on separate Indo-European roots. So the question arete answers is never are you good? but are you excellent at the thing you are for? Which is why Aristotle has to establish what a human being's function is before he can say anything about human excellence at all.
And there's a translation problem downstream that matters more than it looks. Aristotle's word for the settled condition of excellence is hexis, which older translations render as habit. That points the wrong way. A hexis is something held — it lasts because you keep exerting it, the way a grip lasts. Habit implies the reverse: something that runs on its own once trained in.
The difference has teeth. A person acting purely from habit does the same thing regardless of circumstance — which is precisely the failure Aristotle's doctrine of the mean is designed to prevent, since the right amount of anything depends on the situation. Virtue as habit would be a machine. Virtue as hexis is a grip.
Where it comes from
Greek — excellence, virtue; traditionally linked to aristos, 'best', though the derivation is disputed
Arete is traditionally associated with aristos — as in aristocracy, 'rule of the best' — though modern reconstructions assign the two to separate Indo-European roots. Arete is not goodness-in-general but being the best at the thing you are for. The deeper Indo-European root is contested.
- 4th century BCE
Aristotle's function argument ties human excellence to activity of the rational part of the soul in accordance with virtue.
- 384–322 BCE
Aristotle's lifetime. In Nicomachean Ethics II.5 (1105b25–26) he classifies aretē as a hexis — a settled disposition to feel and act rightly, built by habit — not a single act or a passing mood.
In real life
- A knife that slices a ripe tomato cleanly has the arete of a knife; one that crushes it doesn't.
- A racehorse that wins on heavy ground is showing the arete of a horse — doing its own job superbly.
- A carpenter's arete shows in joints that fit and hold, whatever she happens to be like at parties.
Questions
Q01What does arete mean in Greek?
Excellence — specifically excellence at your characteristic function. 'Virtue' is a general term that translates aretē, though it's sometimes translated as excellence, and the Greek applies to objects too: there is the excellence of a horse and the excellence of a knife. It is traditionally linked to aristos, 'best', though modern reconstructions trace it instead to a root meaning 'to fit, join'.
Q02Is arete the same as virtue?
Not quite — 'virtue' is narrower and more moralised. Arete covers functional excellence of any kind, including in objects and animals, and some Greek conceptions of human excellence have a problematic relation to the moral virtues, such as Meno's view that it means benefiting friends and harming enemies.
Q03How do you develop arete?
Through habituation, but Aristotle's term is hexis, and translating it as 'habit' is misleading. A hexis is a condition you keep up by continuing to exert it, not one that runs on its own. Character excellence is also incomplete without practical wisdom: virtue of character only comes fully into its own alongside phronesis.
Sources
- Ancient Ethical Theory — Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
- Aristotle: Ethics — Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
- arete (etymology) — Wiktionary.