Hodos (ὁδός) is translated in Isocrates’ Encomium of Helen as the word method. “Method is formed from the Greek hodos (lit. road, way) combined with the prefix meta (with)”. [1] “Hod" is the prefix meaning "pathway" while “os” has been pegged as a suffix that signifies the masculine gender. [2] Over time, the term hodos has been combined with various other prefixes to form words such as period, "going around," from peri- "around" + hodos "a going, way, journey", and exodus, "a going out," from ex- "out" + hodos "way". [3] Modern words with similar definitions to hodos’ initial meaning are pathway, method or process.
Throughout the Antidosis, Isocrates gives countless examples that indicate his methods to unify and achieve an ultimate polis – using reason to gain moral knowledge and employing public speaking as a means of human improvement. [4] He had high expectations for the citizens and laid out a path for them to follow in order accomplish it.
Just as Isocrates used his speeches to show citizens the path to virtue, those on the religious front have holy texts to look to for guidance. The term hodos has also been adopted in the Christian realm to mean “the way” of God. [5] Hodos is often referenced when a believer is thinking, feeling or deciding on a course of conduct. This brings up the popular term WWJD (What Would Jesus Do?) – what method or path or way would this higher being choose to take?
This sense of finding our path in life is ingrained in human nature. Once pointed in the right direction, we constantly strive for the best process or process to achieve our goal. K-State is working on implementing a new process to improve the university-wide general education program by tagging classes with the K-State 8 – including aesthetic experience and interpretive understanding, empirical and quantitative reasoning, ethical reasoning and responsibility, global issues and perspectives, historical perspectives, human diversity within the U.S., natural and physical sciences, and social sciences. [6] K-State feels that if a student partakes in one of each of the tagged classes, he or she will be proficient in that area and consequently develop “a breadth of knowledge in the areas and proficiency in the skills that [are the] hallmarks of being college educated.” [6]
In the proposal, the “task force” as they call themselves have listed rationales for why each of the eight areas are necessary – further detailing the method behind the madness. The tagging won’t take effect for several years and the method of tagging these classes and requiring students to collect all of their K-State 8 tags will most like be altered as the university strives for the most efficient process to provide students with a diverse general education so that they may choose the best hodos (way) when solving a number of conflicts with their myriad of skills.
1. Isocrates. Encomium of Helen, 34
2. http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/hod-
3. http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=hodos
4. Isocrates. Antidosis
5. http://www.searchgodsword.org/lex/grk/view.cgi?number=3598
6. http://www.k-state.edu/kstate8/proposaal.pdf
* Without strict hodos, I guess we’d just be a bunch of Sophists, right?
Word Count - 494
1 comment:
"Just as Isocrates used his speeches to show citizens the path to virtue..."
I'm not sure I entirely agree with how you apply hodos with Isocrates. I never saw Iscorates' writings as a "guide" or "path" to virtue. If anything, I thought he was more or less laying out a method as in a "format" for how one should go about becoming informed (to embrace logos) in order to contribute to the polis. While contributing to the polis may be one element of becoming a virtuous citizen, it is not THE element just as being a "christian" requires more than going to church and studying the Bible. So if anything, Isocrates' writing is more of a stepping stone within the path, but is not THE main path to virtue.
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