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Full Idea
There is an absence among the Greeks of a notion of obligation, and hence of duty, which is difficult to grasp for people who read the Greeks through spectacles partly affected by the jews.
Gist of Idea
The Greeks have no notion of obligation or duty
Source
Isaiah Berlin (The Roots of Romanticism [1965], Ch.1)
Book Ref
Berlin,Isaiah: 'The Roots of Romanticism' [Pimlico 2000], p.4
A Reaction
This doesn't quite fit early section of 'Republic', in which morality is a mutual agreement not to do harm. Presumably the Greek word 'deon' refers to what needs to be done, rather than to anyone's obligation to do it(?). Contracts need duty? Cf. 4133
Related Idea
Idea 4133 Speciesism isn't like racism, because the former implies a viewpoint which belongs to no one [Williams,B]
7662 | Romanticism is the greatest change in the consciousness of the West [Berlin] |
7664 | The Greeks have no notion of obligation or duty [Berlin] |
7663 | Judaism and Christianity views are based on paternal, family and tribal relations [Berlin] |
7665 | Most Enlightenment thinkers believed that virtue consists ultimately in knowledge [Berlin] |
7676 | If we are essentially free wills, authenticity and sincerity are the highest virtues [Berlin] |
7677 | Central to existentialism is the romantic idea that there is nothing to lean on [Berlin] |
7460 | The great moments are the death of Aristotle, Machiavelli, and Romanticism [Berlin, by Watson] |
20544 | Berlin distinguishes 'negative' and 'positive' liberty, and rejects the latter [Berlin, by Swift] |