From: Capurro-AT-nepo1.iaea.or.at (Capurro Annette)
Date: Mon, 05 Aug 1996 12:08:29 +0200
Subject: Ethos with Epsilon



Well Tom B. , I think Michael Eldred is right, you should buy a Greek 
dictionary (actually I have to use very often an English one!) and you 
should read Aristotle' s Nichomachean Ethics, there you will find a very 
famous explanation of the word "ethics": in Greek you have two kinds of "e" 
a short one (that is called epsilon) and a long one that is called "etha". 
Ethics is being written with the long one, and Aristotle explains that the 
origin of the word "Eethos" (wich Etha) is from "ethos" (wich Epsilon) that 
means Character, whereas "eethos" means the habits or (latin) "mores" 
(German: Sitten). Since German Idealism there is the distinction between 
"Moralitaet" (as individual morality) and Sittlichkeit (the Morality 
belonging to a society). The discussion between Heidegger and Levinas refers 
to the question whether (roughly speaking) the personal ethics (ethos with 
epsilon) is founded on "eethos" (this is in some way Heideggers position) or 
the other way around. I do not think it makes to much sense to think of 
ethos as a static view and morality as temporal view (particularly not in Hs 
terms). By the say, if you want to understand H. you will have to learn 
Greek...
Cheers
Rafael



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