90-428: Kairos ( Ancient Greek : καιρός ) is an ancient Greek word meaning 'the right or critical moment'. In modern Greek , kairos also means 'weather' or 'time'. It is one of two words that the ancient Greeks had for ' time '; the other being chronos ( χρόνος ). Whereas the latter refers to chronological or sequential time , kairos signifies a good or proper time for action. In this sense, while chronos
180-543: A pitch accent . In Modern Greek, all vowels and consonants are short. Many vowels and diphthongs once pronounced distinctly are pronounced as /i/ ( iotacism ). Some of the stops and glides in diphthongs have become fricatives , and the pitch accent has changed to a stress accent . Many of the changes took place in the Koine Greek period. The writing system of Modern Greek, however, does not reflect all pronunciation changes. The examples below represent Attic Greek in
270-705: A distinction in John 7:6 between "His" time and " His brothers '" time: paradoxically , it is "always" ( Greek : πάντοτε ) his brothers' time. In the context, they can go to Jerusalem any time they wish. In the Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic churches, before the Divine Liturgy begins, the Deacon exclaims to the Priest , Kairos tou poiēsai tō Kyriō ( Καιρὸς τοῦ ποιῆσαι τῷ Κυρίῳ ), i.e. 'It
360-445: A distinctive doctrine of reincarnation . He is generally considered the last Greek philosopher to have recorded his ideas in verse. Some of his work survives, more than is the case for any other pre-Socratic philosopher. Empedocles' death was mythologized by ancient writers, and has been the subject of a number of literary treatments. The exact dates of Empedocles' birth and death are unknown, and ancient accounts of his life conflict on
450-452: A gap that momentarily opens in the warp of the cloth being woven". Both are examples of the precise timing of a decision/action to achieve the best outcome. In the literature of the classical ancient world , writers and orators used kairos to specify moments of opportune action, often through metaphors involving archery and one's ability to aim and shoot at the exact right time on-target. The ancient Greeks formulated kairos in general as
540-477: A lack of contemporaneous evidence. Several theories exist about what Hellenic dialect groups may have existed between the divergence of early Greek-like speech from the common Proto-Indo-European language and the Classical period. They have the same general outline but differ in some of the detail. The only attested dialect from this period is Mycenaean Greek , but its relationship to the historical dialects and
630-417: A later speech in response to that unseized moment. However, Vatz counters Bitzer's view by claiming that a situation is made rhetorical by the perception of its interpreter and the way which they choose to respond to it, whether with discourse or not. It is the rhetor's responsibility to give an event meaning through linguistic depiction. Both Bitzer's and Vatz' perspectives add depth to Hess' ideas that kairos
720-419: A lesser degree. Pamphylian Greek , spoken in a small area on the southwestern coast of Anatolia and little preserved in inscriptions, may be either a fifth major dialect group, or it is Mycenaean Greek overlaid by Doric, with a non-Greek native influence. Regarding the speech of the ancient Macedonians diverse theories have been put forward, but the epigraphic activity and the archaeological discoveries in
810-550: A prefix /e-/, called the augment . This was probably originally a separate word, meaning something like "then", added because tenses in PIE had primarily aspectual meaning. The augment is added to the indicative of the aorist, imperfect, and pluperfect, but not to any of the other forms of the aorist (no other forms of the imperfect and pluperfect exist). The two kinds of augment in Greek are syllabic and quantitative. The syllabic augment
900-408: A reliance on the given or known", or as "the opportune, spontaneous, or timely." Although these two ideas of kairos might seem conflicting, Hess says that they offer a more extensive understanding of the term. Furthermore, they encourage creativity, which is necessary to adapt to unforeseen obstacles and opinions that can alter the opportune or appropriate moment, i.e. kairos . Being able to recognize
990-465: A selected few among them, were originally long-lived daimons who dwelt in a state of bliss until committing an unspecified crime, possibly bloodshed or perjury. As a consequence, they fell to Earth, where they would be forced to spend 30,000 cycles of metempsychosis through different bodies before being able to return to the sphere of divinity . One's behavior during his lifetime would also determine his next incarnation. Wise people, who have learned
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#17328015521101080-608: A separate historical stage, though its earliest form closely resembles Attic Greek , and its latest form approaches Medieval Greek . There were several regional dialects of Ancient Greek; Attic Greek developed into Koine. Ancient Greek was a pluricentric language , divided into many dialects. The main dialect groups are Attic and Ionic , Aeolic , Arcadocypriot , and Doric , many of them with several subdivisions. Some dialects are found in standardized literary forms in literature , while others are attested only in inscriptions. There are also several historical forms. Homeric Greek
1170-630: A standard subject of study in educational institutions of the Western world since the Renaissance . This article primarily contains information about the Epic and Classical periods of the language, which are the best-attested periods and considered most typical of Ancient Greek. From the Hellenistic period ( c. 300 BC ), Ancient Greek was followed by Koine Greek , which is regarded as
1260-411: A tool to explain and understand the interposition of humans for their actions and the due consequences. Kairos is also an alternate spelling of the name of the minor Greek deity Caerus , the god of luck and opportunity. In rhetoric , kairos is "a passing instant when an opening appears which must be driven through with force if success is to be achieved." Kairos , then, means that one must find
1350-448: A volcano could be easily accepted by ancient writers, as there was no local tradition to contradict them. Empedocles' death is the subject of Friedrich Hölderlin 's play Tod des Empedokles ( The Death of Empedocles ) as well as Matthew Arnold 's poem Empedocles on Etna . Based on the surviving fragments of his work, modern scholars generally believe that Empedocles was directly responding to Parmenides ' doctrine of monism and
1440-510: A vowel or /n s r/ ; final stops were lost, as in γάλα "milk", compared with γάλακτος "of milk" (genitive). Ancient Greek of the classical period also differed in both the inventory and distribution of original PIE phonemes due to numerous sound changes, notably the following: The pronunciation of Ancient Greek was very different from that of Modern Greek . Ancient Greek had long and short vowels ; many diphthongs ; double and single consonants; voiced, voiceless, and aspirated stops ; and
1530-570: Is a literary form of Archaic Greek (derived primarily from Ionic and Aeolic) used in the epic poems , the Iliad and the Odyssey , and in later poems by other authors. Homeric Greek had significant differences in grammar and pronunciation from Classical Attic and other Classical-era dialects. The origins, early form and development of the Hellenic language family are not well understood because of
1620-418: Is added to stems beginning with consonants, and simply prefixes e (stems beginning with r , however, add er ). The quantitative augment is added to stems beginning with vowels, and involves lengthening the vowel: Some verbs augment irregularly; the most common variation is e → ei . The irregularity can be explained diachronically by the loss of s between vowels, or that of the letter w , which affected
1710-666: Is called 'East Greek'. Arcadocypriot apparently descended more closely from the Mycenaean Greek of the Bronze Age. Boeotian Greek had come under a strong Northwest Greek influence, and can in some respects be considered a transitional dialect, as exemplified in the poems of the Boeotian poet Pindar who wrote in Doric with a small Aeolic admixture. Thessalian likewise had come under Northwest Greek influence, though to
1800-426: Is concerned with both timeliness and appropriateness. On one hand, Bitzer's argument supports Hess' claim that kairos is spontaneous, and one must be able to recognize the situation as opportune in order to take advantage of it. On the other hand, Vatz' idea that the rhetor is responsible reinforces Hess' suggestion of the need to be knowledgeable and involved in the surrounding environment in order to fully profit from
1890-448: Is considered by some linguists to have been closely related to Greek . Among Indo-European branches with living descendants, Greek is often argued to have the closest genetic ties with Armenian (see also Graeco-Armenian ) and Indo-Iranian languages (see Graeco-Aryan ). Ancient Greek differs from Proto-Indo-European (PIE) and other Indo-European languages in certain ways. In phonotactics , ancient Greek words could end only in
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#17328015521101980-415: Is mostly focused on the placement of logos, pathos, and ethos. It is used as a "starting point" in modern rhetoric. Kelly Pender (2003) states the inclusion of kairos within discourse "would try to shift the focus of personal writing from the writer's experiences and emotions to a broader perspective that explicitly concentrates on the rhetorical situation ...." Kairos is an expressive inclusion within
2070-606: Is no one word in today's English language that succinctly encompasses the meaning of kairos (similar to ethos , logos , and pathos ). Michael Harker (2007) says, "Like the 'points' on the rhetorical triangle, the meaning of kairos is not definitive but rather a starting point for grasping the whole of an argument." The inclusion of kairos in modern composition has not been implicitly made, but there are undertones. Various components of kairos are included in modern composition and have made profound effects on modern composition theory. The purpose of kairos in modern rhetoric
2160-483: Is quantitative, kairos has a qualitative, permanent nature. The plural, kairoi ( καιροί ) means 'the times'. Kairos is a term, idea, and practice that has been applied in several fields including classical rhetoric , modern rhetoric , digital media , Christian theology , and science. In his 1951 etymological studies of the word, Onians traces the primary root back to ancient Greek associations with both archery and weaving . In archery, kairos denotes
2250-536: Is re-evaluated. Rather than being incinerated in the fires of Mount Etna, he was carried up into the heavens by a volcanic eruption. Although singed by the ordeal, Empedocles survives and continues his life on the Moon, surviving by feeding on dew. Burnet states that Empedocles likely did not die in Sicily, that both the positive story of Empedocles being taken up to heaven and the negative one about him throwing himself into
2340-473: Is responsible for the attraction of different forms of what we now call matter , and Strife ( νεῖκος ) is the cause of their separation. If the four elements make up the universe, then Love and Strife explain their variation and harmony. Love and Strife are attractive and repulsive forces, respectively, which are plainly observable in human behavior, but also pervade the universe. The two forces wax and wane in their dominance, but neither force ever wholly escapes
2430-549: Is time [ kairos ] for the Lord to act', indicating that the time of the Liturgy is an intersection with Eternity. In The Interpretation of History , neo-orthodox Lutheran theologian Paul Tillich made prominent use of the term. For him, the kairoi are those crises in history (see Christian existentialism ) which create an opportunity for, and indeed demand, an existential decision by the human subject—the coming of Christ being
2520-759: The Greek region of Macedonia during the last decades has brought to light documents, among which the first texts written in Macedonian , such as the Pella curse tablet , as Hatzopoulos and other scholars note. Based on the conclusions drawn by several studies and findings such as Pella curse tablet , Emilio Crespo and other scholars suggest that ancient Macedonian was a Northwest Doric dialect , which shares isoglosses with its neighboring Thessalian dialects spoken in northeastern Thessaly . Some have also suggested an Aeolic Greek classification. The Lesbian dialect
2610-578: The New Testament , kairos means "the appointed time in the purpose of God," the time when God acts (e.g. Mark 1:15 : the kairos is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand). Kairos (used 86 times in the New Testament) refers to an opportune time, a "moment" or a "season" such as " harvest time ", whereas chronos (used 54 times) refers to a specific amount of time, such as a day or an hour (e.g. Acts 13:18 and 27:9 ). Jesus makes
2700-530: The corporeality of air, but he says nothing whatever about the void, and there is no evidence that Empedocles performed any experiment with clepsydras. According to Diogenes Laertius, Empedocles wrote two poems, "On Nature" and "On Purifications", which together comprised 5000 lines. However, only some 550 lines of his poetry survive, quoted in fragments by later ancient sources. In old editions of Empedocles, about 450 lines were ascribed to "On Nature" which outlined his philosophical system, and explains not only
2790-501: The present , future , and imperfect are imperfective in aspect; the aorist , present perfect , pluperfect and future perfect are perfective in aspect. Most tenses display all four moods and three voices, although there is no future subjunctive or imperative. Also, there is no imperfect subjunctive, optative or imperative. The infinitives and participles correspond to the finite combinations of tense, aspect, and voice. The indicative of past tenses adds (conceptually, at least)
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2880-1031: The 5th century BC. Ancient pronunciation cannot be reconstructed with certainty, but Greek from the period is well documented, and there is little disagreement among linguists as to the general nature of the sounds that the letters represent. /oː/ raised to [uː] , probably by the 4th century BC. Greek, like all of the older Indo-European languages , is highly inflected. It is highly archaic in its preservation of Proto-Indo-European forms. In ancient Greek, nouns (including proper nouns) have five cases ( nominative , genitive , dative , accusative , and vocative ), three genders ( masculine , feminine , and neuter ), and three numbers (singular, dual , and plural ). Verbs have four moods ( indicative , imperative , subjunctive , and optative ) and three voices (active, middle, and passive ), as well as three persons (first, second, and third) and various other forms. Verbs are conjugated through seven combinations of tenses and aspect (generally simply called "tenses"):
2970-495: The Archaic period of ancient Greek (see Homeric Greek for more details): Μῆνιν ἄειδε, θεά, Πηληϊάδεω Ἀχιλῆος οὐλομένην, ἣ μυρί' Ἀχαιοῖς ἄλγε' ἔθηκε, πολλὰς δ' ἰφθίμους ψυχὰς Ἄϊδι προΐαψεν ἡρώων, αὐτοὺς δὲ ἑλώρια τεῦχε κύνεσσιν οἰωνοῖσί τε πᾶσι· Διὸς δ' ἐτελείετο βουλή· ἐξ οὗ δὴ τὰ πρῶτα διαστήτην ἐρίσαντε Ἀτρεΐδης τε ἄναξ ἀνδρῶν καὶ δῖος Ἀχιλλεύς. The beginning of Apology by Plato exemplifies Attic Greek from
3060-603: The Classical period of ancient Greek. (The second line is the IPA , the third is transliterated into the Latin alphabet using a modern version of the Erasmian scheme .) Ὅτι [hóti Hóti μὲν men mèn ὑμεῖς, hyːmêːs hūmeîs, Empedocles Empedocles ( / ɛ m ˈ p ɛ d ə k l iː z / ; ‹See Tfd› Greek : Ἐμπεδοκλῆς ; c. 494 – c. 434 BC , fl. 444–443 BC)
3150-462: The Sophistic context is based on the thought that speech must happen at a certain time in order for it to be most effective. If rhetoric is to be meaningful and successful, it must be presented at the right moment, or else it will not have the same impact on the members of the audience. Aristotle and his followers also discuss the importance of kairos in their teachings. In his Rhetoric , one of
3240-403: The Sophistic scheme of rhetoric in conjunction with the ideas of prepon and dynaton. These two terms combined with kairos are their keys to successful rhetoric. As stated by Poulakos, Prepon deals with the notion that "what is said must conform to both audience and occasion." Dynaton has to do with the idea of the possible, or what the speaker is attempting to convince the audience of. Kairos in
3330-550: The aorist. Following Homer 's practice, the augment is sometimes not made in poetry , especially epic poetry. The augment sometimes substitutes for reduplication; see below. Almost all forms of the perfect, pluperfect, and future perfect reduplicate the initial syllable of the verb stem. (A few irregular forms of perfect do not reduplicate, whereas a handful of irregular aorists reduplicate.) The three types of reduplication are: Irregular duplication can be understood diachronically. For example, lambanō (root lab ) has
3420-480: The art of rhetoric and successful discourse. In his article "Toward a Sophistic Definition of Rhetoric", John Poulakos defines rhetoric from a Sophistic perspective as follows: "Rhetoric is the art which seeks to capture in opportune moments that which is appropriate and attempts to suggest that which is possible." Aristotle and Plato, on the other hand, viewed Sophistic rhetoric as a tool used to manipulate others, and criticized those who taught it. Kairos fits into
3510-593: The audience's personal beliefs and motivations. Additionally, factors such as cultural background, previous social experiences, and current mood, can influence the capacity to see and understand the correct and opportune moment of action. Thus, the difficulty of using kairos in a modern rhetorical setting is understanding and working within its constraints, while also carefully considering unexpected situations and encounters that arise, in order to present one's rhetorical argument as naturally as possible. Definitions of kairos using modern English are inherently vague: There
3600-419: The augment when it was word-initial. In verbs with a preposition as a prefix, the augment is placed not at the start of the word, but between the preposition and the original verb. For example, προσ(-)βάλλω (I attack) goes to προσ έ βαλoν in the aorist. However compound verbs consisting of a prefix that is not a preposition retain the augment at the start of the word: αὐτο(-)μολῶ goes to ηὐ τομόλησα in
3690-501: The best situation, taking timing into consideration, to act. Kairos was central to the Sophists , who stressed the rhetor's ability to adapt to and take advantage of changing and contingent circumstances. In Panathenaicus , Isocrates writes that educated people are those "who manage well the circumstances which they encounter day by day, and who possess a judgment which is accurate in meeting occasions as they arise and rarely misses
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3780-426: The bond which kept the pure elementary substances together in the sphere was dissolved. The elements became the world of phenomena we see today, full of contrasts and oppositions, operated on by both Love and Strife. Empedocles assumed a cyclical universe whereby the elements return and prepare the formation of the sphere for the next period of the universe. Empedocles attempted to explain the separation of elements,
3870-438: The center of Greek scholarship, this division of people and language is quite similar to the results of modern archaeological-linguistic investigation. One standard formulation for the dialects is: West vs. non-West Greek is the strongest-marked and earliest division, with non-West in subsets of Ionic-Attic (or Attic-Ionic) and Aeolic vs. Arcadocypriot, or Aeolic and Arcado-Cypriot vs. Ionic-Attic. Often non-West
3960-615: The dialect of Sparta ), and Northern Peloponnesus Doric (including Corinthian ). All the groups were represented by colonies beyond Greece proper as well, and these colonies generally developed local characteristics, often under the influence of settlers or neighbors speaking different Greek dialects. After the conquests of Alexander the Great in the late 4th century BC, a new international dialect known as Koine or Common Greek developed, largely based on Attic Greek , but with influence from other dialects. This dialect slowly replaced most of
4050-465: The different proportions in which these four indestructible and unchangeable elements are combined with each other the difference of the structure is produced. It is in the aggregation and segregation of elements thus arising, that Empedocles, like the atomists, found the real process which corresponds to what is popularly termed growth, increase or decrease. One interpreter describes his philosophy as asserting that "Nothing new comes or can come into being;
4140-426: The essay notes that the introduction sections of scientific research articles are nothing more than the construction of openings. This idea derives from the spatial aspect of kairos , or the creation of "an opening," which can be created by writers and discovered by readers. This opening is the opportune time, or kairos . Swales created what he called the "create a research space" model, wherein kairos , or an opening,
4230-530: The exact details. However, they agree that he was born in the early 5th century BC in the Greek city of Akragas in Magna Graecia , present-day Sicily . Modern scholars believe the accuracy of the accounts that he came from a rich and noble family and that his grandfather, also named Empedocles, had won a victory in the horse race at Olympia in the 71st Olympiad (496–495 BC). Little else can be determined with accuracy. Primary sources of information on
4320-467: The expedient course of action." Kairos is also very important in Aristotle 's scheme of rhetoric. Kairos is, for Aristotle, the time and space context in which the proof will be delivered. Kairos stands alongside other contextual elements of rhetoric: The Audience , which is the psychological and emotional makeup of those who will receive the proof; and To Prepon , which is the style with which
4410-411: The flames of Mount Etna . Diogenes Laërtius records the legend that Empedocles died by throwing himself into Mount Etna in Sicily, so that the people would believe his body had vanished and he had turned into an immortal god; the volcano, however, threw back one of his bronze sandals, revealing the deceit. Another legend maintains that he threw himself into the volcano to prove to his disciples that he
4500-549: The formation of earth and sea, of Sun and Moon, of atmosphere. He also dealt with the first origin of plants and animals, and with the physiology of humans. As the elements entered into combinations, there appeared strange results—heads without necks, arms without shoulders. Then as these fragmentary structures met, there were seen horned heads on human bodies, bodies of oxen with human heads, and figures of double sex . But most of these products of natural forces disappeared as suddenly as they arose; only in those rare cases where
4590-673: The forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek ( c. 1400–1200 BC ), Dark Ages ( c. 1200–800 BC ), the Archaic or Epic period ( c. 800–500 BC ), and the Classical period ( c. 500–300 BC ). Ancient Greek was the language of Homer and of fifth-century Athenian historians, playwrights, and philosophers . It has contributed many words to English vocabulary and has been
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#17328015521104680-410: The fundamental basis on which later Greek philosophers and mathematicians like Euclid would construct some of the most important theories of light, vision, and optics. Knowledge is explained by the principle that elements in the things outside us are perceived by the corresponding elements in ourselves. Like is known by like. The whole body is full of pores and hence respiration takes place over
4770-561: The historical Dorians . The invasion is known to have displaced population to the later Attic-Ionic regions, who regarded themselves as descendants of the population displaced by or contending with the Dorians. The Greeks of this period believed there were three major divisions of all Greek people – Dorians, Aeolians, and Ionians (including Athenians), each with their own defining and distinctive dialects. Allowing for their oversight of Arcadian, an obscure mountain dialect, and Cypriot, far from
4860-476: The historical circumstances of the times imply that the overall groups already existed in some form. Scholars assume that major Ancient Greek period dialect groups developed not later than 1120 BC, at the time of the Dorian invasions —and that their first appearances as precise alphabetic writing began in the 8th century BC. The invasion would not be "Dorian" unless the invaders had some cultural relationship to
4950-476: The implications of the original definition for kairos . This implication is if "the target was moving and the soldier only had a narrow gap, the timing of the shot was crucial." Douglas Downs (2016) defines kairos as the principle of rhetors having little influence over their discourse, which causes them to convey what makes sense in the moment. Kairos serves as a reminder that many of the topics rhetors will respond to are well out of their scope of control. In
5040-451: The imposition of the other. As the best and original state, there was a time when the pure elements and the two powers co-existed in a condition of rest and inertness in the form of a sphere. The elements existed together in their purity, without mixture and separation, and the uniting power of Love predominated in the sphere: the separating power of Strife guarded the extreme edges of the sphere. Since that time, strife gained more sway and
5130-455: The kairos that exists both before the text is created and during the presentation. In addition, each text helps create a new kairos for texts that come after. Some scholars studying kairos in the modern digital sphere argue that the aspects of body/identity, distribution/circulation, access/accessibility, interaction, and economics are handled differently in an online setting and therefore messages that are sent digitally need to be altered to fit
5220-490: The life of Empedocles come from the Hellenistic period , several centuries after his own death and long after any reliable evidence about his life would have perished. Modern scholarship generally believes that these biographical details, including Aristotle 's assertion that he was the "father of rhetoric ", his chronologically impossible tutelage under Pythagoras , and his employment as a doctor and miracle worker, were fabricated from interpretations of Empedocles' poetry, as
5310-408: The moment in which an arrow may be shot with sufficient force to penetrate a target. In weaving, kairos denotes the moment in which the shuttle could be passed through threads on the loom . Similarly, in his Kaironomia (1983), E.C. White defines kairos as the "long, tunnel-like aperture through which the archer's arrow has to pass", and as the moment "when the weaver must draw the yarn through
5400-453: The nature and history of the universe, including his theory of the four classical elements , but also theories on causation, perception, and thought, as well as explanations of terrestrial phenomena and biological processes. The other 100 lines were typically ascribed to his "Purifications", which was taken to be a poem about ritual purification, or the poem that contained all his religious and ethical thought, which early editors supposed that it
5490-453: The new circumstances. In order to reach online audiences effectively, scholars suggest that context of the information's use, which includes considerations of legal, health-related, disciplinary, and political factors paired with smart rhetorical thinking can solve the issue of miscommunicated messages distributed on online forums. Ancient Greek language Ancient Greek ( Ἑλληνῐκή , Hellēnikḗ ; [hellɛːnikɛ́ː] ) includes
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#17328015521105580-508: The older dialects, although the Doric dialect has survived in the Tsakonian language , which is spoken in the region of modern Sparta. Doric has also passed down its aorist terminations into most verbs of Demotic Greek . By about the 6th century AD, the Koine had slowly metamorphosed into Medieval Greek . Phrygian is an extinct Indo-European language of West and Central Anatolia , which
5670-599: The only change that can occur is a change in the juxtaposition of element with element." This theory of the four elements became the standard dogma for the next two thousand years. The four elements, however, are simple, eternal, and unalterable, and as change is the consequence of their mixture and separation, it was also necessary to suppose the existence of moving powers that bring about mixture and separation. The four elements are both eternally brought into union and parted from one another by two divine powers, Love and Strife ( Philotes and Neikos ). Love ( φιλότης )
5760-403: The opportune moment. Hess' conflicting perspective on kairos is exemplified by the disagreement between Lloyd Bitzer (1968) and Richard Vatz (1983) about the ' rhetorical situation '. Bitzer argues that 'rhetorical situations' exist independent of human perspective; a situation invites discourse. He discusses the feeling of a missed opportunity ( kairos ) to speak and the tendency to create
5850-443: The orator clothes the proof. In Ancient Greece , kairos was utilized by both of the two main schools of thought in the field of rhetoric, focusing specifically on how kairos applies to speeches. The competing schools were those of the Sophists and their opposition, led by philosophers such as Aristotle and Plato . Sophism approached rhetoric as an art form. Members of the school would travel around Greece teaching citizens about
5940-437: The others. Kairos has classically been defined as a concept that focused on "the uniquely timely, the spontaneous, the radically particular." Ancient Pythagoreans thought kairos to be one of the most fundamental laws of the universe. Kairos was said to piece together the dualistic ways of the entire universe. Empedocles was the philosopher who connected kairos to the principle of opposites and harmony. It then became
6030-422: The overall subject of discourse, and one that has an effect on the entire rhetoric. Christian Lundberg and William Keith (2008) describe kairos in their rhetoric guide as the concept that "there is an exact right time to deliver a message if the audience is to be persuaded." Concepts such as relevance, recent events, and who the audience is play a role in determining the right moment to speak. Which has to do with
6120-544: The parts were found to be adapted to each other did the complex structures last. Thus the organic universe sprang from spontaneous aggregations that suited each other as if this had been intended. Soon various influences reduced creatures of double sex to a male and a female, and the world was replenished with organic life. Like Pythagoras , Empedocles believed in the transmigration of the soul or metempsychosis , that souls can be reincarnated between humans, animals and even plants. According to him, all humans, or maybe only
6210-487: The perfect stem eilēpha (not * lelēpha ) because it was originally slambanō , with perfect seslēpha , becoming eilēpha through compensatory lengthening. Reduplication is also visible in the present tense stems of certain verbs. These stems add a syllable consisting of the root's initial consonant followed by i . A nasal stop appears after the reduplication in some verbs. The earliest extant examples of ancient Greek writing ( c. 1450 BC ) are in
6300-429: The phenomenon of respiration by means of an elaborate analogy with the clepsydra , an ancient device for conveying liquids from one vessel to another. This fragment has sometimes been connected to a passage in Aristotle 's Physics where Aristotle refers to people who twisted wineskins and captured air in clepsydras to demonstrate that void does not exist. The fragment certainly implies that Empedocles knew about
6390-546: The prime example (compare Karl Barth 's use of Geschichte as opposed to Historie ). In the Kairos Document , an example of liberation theology in South Africa under apartheid , the term kairos is used to denote "the appointed time," "the crucial time" into which the document or text is spoken. In Hippocrates ' (460–357 BCE) major theoretical treatises on the nature of medical science and methodology,
6480-537: The principle of conflict and resolution and was thus inserted as a concept for rhetoric. Aaron Hess (2011) submits a definition of kairos for the present day that bridges the two classical applications: Hess addresses Poulakos' view that, "In short, kairos dictates that what is said, must be said at the right time." He also suggests that in addition to timeliness, kairos considers appropriateness. According to Hess, kairos can either be understood as, "the decorum or propriety of any given moment and speech act, implying
6570-418: The propriety of a situation while having the ability to adapt one's rhetoric allows taking advantage of kairos to be successful. Hess's updated definition of kairos concludes that along with taking advantage of the timeliness and appropriateness of a situation, the term also implies being knowledgeable of and involved in the environment where the situation is taking place in order to benefit fully from seizing
6660-420: The same spiritual plane; plants and animals are links in a chain where humans are a link too. Empedocles is credited with the first comprehensive theory of light and vision. Historian Will Durant noted that "Empedocles suggested that light takes time to pass from one point to another." He put forward the idea that we see objects because light streams out of our eyes and touches them. While flawed, this became
6750-450: The same time or in the same way, but creating an opening makes it possible to construct the right time. This can easily be related back to Hippocrates' statement that not every opening is an opportunity. Yet, in science, the message can be adapted in such a way that chronos becomes kairos . The idea can also be expressed as Carolyn Glasshoff (2011) wrote, that specifically in the field of scientific writing, any text must be influenced by
6840-497: The secret of life, are closer to the divine, while their souls similarly are closer to the freedom from the cycle of reincarnations, after which they are able to rest in happiness for eternity. This cycle of mortal incarnation seems to have been inspired by the god Apollo 's punishment as a servant to Admetus . Empedocles was a vegetarian and advocated vegetarianism, since the bodies of animals are also dwelling places of punished souls. For Empedocles, all living things were on
6930-403: The situation. According to Bitzer, kairos is composed of exigence , audience, and constraints. Exigence is the inherent pressure to do something about a situation immediately, with the action required depending on the situation. The audience are the listeners who the rhetor is attempting to persuade. Constraints are the external factors that challenges the rhetor's ability to influence, such as
7020-480: The structures in the world— fire , air , water , earth . Empedocles called these four elements "roots", which he also identified with the mythical names of Zeus , Hera , Nestis , and Aidoneus (e.g., "Now hear the fourfold roots of everything: enlivening Hera, Hades, shining Zeus. And Nestis, moistening mortal springs with tears"). Empedocles never used the term "element" ( στοιχεῖον , stoicheion ), which seems to have been first used by Plato . According to
7110-517: The syllabic script Linear B . Beginning in the 8th century BC, however, the Greek alphabet became standard, albeit with some variation among dialects. Early texts are written in boustrophedon style, but left-to-right became standard during the classic period. Modern editions of ancient Greek texts are usually written with accents and breathing marks , interword spacing , modern punctuation , and sometimes mixed case , but these were all introduced later. The beginning of Homer 's Iliad exemplifies
7200-403: The term kairos is used within the first line. Hippocrates is generally accepted as the father of medicine, but his contribution to the discourse of science is less discussed. While kairos most often refers to "the right time," Hippocrates also used the term when referencing experimentation. Using this term allowed him to "express the variable components of medical practice more accurately." Here
7290-522: The ways that Aristotle uses the idea of kairos is in reference to the specificity of each rhetorical situation. Aristotle believed that each rhetorical situation was different, and therefore different rhetorical devices needed to be applied at that point in time. One of the most well known parts of Aristotle's Rhetoric is when he discusses the roles of pathos, ethos, and logos. Aristotle ties kairos to these concepts, claiming that there are times in each rhetorical situation when one needs to be utilized over
7380-439: The whole frame. In the organs of sense these pores are specially adapted to receive the effluences which are continually rising from bodies around us; thus perception occurs. In vision, certain particles go forth from the eye to meet similar particles given forth from the object, and the resultant contact constitutes vision. Perception is not merely a passive reflection of external objects. Empedocles also attempted to explain
7470-489: The word refers more to proportion, the mean, and the implicit sense of right measure. Hippocrates most famous quote about kairos is "every kairos is a chronos, but not every chronos is a kairos." In A Rhetoric of Doing: Essays on Written Discourse in Honor of James L. Kinneavy by Stephen Paul Witte, Neil Nakadate, and Roger Dennis Cherry (1992) also discusses the art of kairos in the field of science. Citing John Swales ,
7560-480: Was Aeolic. For example, fragments of the works of the poet Sappho from the island of Lesbos are in Aeolian. Most of the dialect sub-groups listed above had further subdivisions, generally equivalent to a city-state and its surrounding territory, or to an island. Doric notably had several intermediate divisions as well, into Island Doric (including Cretan Doric ), Southern Peloponnesus Doric (including Laconian ,
7650-471: Was a Greek pre-Socratic philosopher and a native citizen of Akragas , a Greek city in Sicily . Empedocles' philosophy is known best for originating the cosmogonic theory of the four classical elements . He also proposed forces he called Love and Strife which would mix and separate the elements, respectively. Empedocles challenged the practice of animal sacrifice and killing animals for food. He developed
7740-589: Was a poem that offered a mythical account of the world which may, nevertheless, have been part of Empedocles' philosophical system. A late 20th century discovery has changed this situation. The Strasbourg papyrus contains a large section of "On Nature", including many lines formerly attributed to "On Purifications". This has raised considerable debate about whether the surviving fragments of his teaching should be attributed to two separate poems, with different subject matter; whether they may all derive from one poem with two titles; or whether one title refers to part of
7830-466: Was common practice for the biographies written during this time. According to Aristotle , Empedocles died at the age of 60 ( c. 430 BC ), even though other writers have him living up to the age of 109. Likewise, there are myths concerning his death: a tradition, which is traced to Heraclides Ponticus , represented him as having been removed from the Earth; whereas others had him perishing in
7920-478: Was constructed. It consisted of four rhetorical moves: (1) establishing the field; (2) summarizing previous research; (3) preparing for present research; and (4) introducing the present research. Step (3) is where a gap in previous research is indicated, thus creating the need for more information. The writer constructs a need, and an opening. Because kairos emphasizes change, it is an important aspect of science. Not all scientific research can be presented at
8010-452: Was immortal; he believed he would come back as a god after being consumed by the fire. Lucretius speaks of him with enthusiasm, and evidently viewed him as his model. Horace also refers to the death of Empedocles in his work Ars Poetica and admits poets have the right to destroy themselves . In Icaro-Menippus [ it ] , a comedic dialogue written by the second-century satirist Lucian of Samosata , Empedocles' final fate
8100-582: Was likely acquainted with the work of Anaxagoras , although it is unlikely he was aware of either the later Eleatics or the doctrines of the Atomists . Many later accounts of his life claim that Empedocles studied with the Pythagoreans on the basis of his doctrine of reincarnation, although he may have instead learned this from a local tradition rather than directly from the Pythagoreans . Empedocles established four ultimate elements which make all
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