Kairos

The Notion of Kairos While we in the present day are centre with using the word succession, the Early Greeks made the distinction between two very variant nonions of this concept. The first one, Chronos, refers to a linear and quantifiable time, whereas the second, Kairos, denotes the idea of the right time to take an fulfil, or to stimulate a speech on a particular topic for instance. Comparing Kairos and Chronos raises the question of the role of Kairos in human agency. In m any cases, the morsel of the exertion appears to be more key than the litigate itself.In fact, Kairos is an probability for men to have agency in a world usually dictated by fate. In this way, Kairos restores freedom to human lives that would otherwisewise be predetermined. Finally, it is interesting to notice that there does not endure a modern font English translation for Kairos, which seems to suggest that it is a concept that does not have a show up in modern society and thus in our modern a greement of time. Chronos and Kairos oppose each other in many ways.. Whereas Chronos refers to sequential time, measurable and regular, Kairos denotes qualitative time, or a favorable jiffy.Moreover, unlike Chronos, Kairos is unorthodox and discount only be revealed thanks to the correct interpretation of external signs, hence the impression that it is fixed egressside of Chronos. The opportune moments Kairos provides are neither measurable nor predictable, and cannot be located on a measure or on any similar device. Thus, to a certain extent, Kairos seems to be a timeless time. The Hippocratic Corpus, a group of texts said to be written by Hippocrates, exemplifies the importance of Kairos to the ancient Greeks in popular life.The author writes that the success of the care for a doctor administers to a patient depends greatly on the time or moment that the medicine is given. While the success of the touch on used is also subject on different characteristics of the patient s eubstance, it is the moment that the remedy is used that is the most important. Indeed, Kairos cannot be placed in a larger temporal framework because it does not relate to the notions of past and future. For this reason, Kairos can only exist in the present. This is why a physician does not try to redict how a disease will evolve, except instead attempts to predict in which Kairos, or critical phase he is in at the moment of his medical checkup examination. For example, in the case of an overpowering heaviness of the head, water, or at most a pale-yellow wine should be administered. While this quote may seem to describe the way doctors apply medicine today, it is in fact a description of a very different system. Rather than seeking a connection between the note and the medicine, ancient doctors felt there was a connection between the symptom and the moment of Kairos it exists in.Different symptoms indicated different moments of Kairos which then dictated how the patient ough t to be treated. Furthermore, these moments of interpretation are deeply anchored in the present, as it is the only time (as opposed to past and future) in which action can be taken. This is to suppose that Kairos is the moment in which a man can escape his fate, which otherwise rules his life. Fate is always associated with Chronos time, which can be predicted and unavoidably evolves from past to future consort to a predetermined development.In contrast, Kairos time allows for spontaneous action based on temporal opportunities. Since in Chronos time, the present is already determined by the past, there is neer a true moment of freedom. Sophocles play Oedipus at Colonus presents an illustration of this predestination Thy tale of cruel paltry For which no cure was found, The fate that held thee bound. Here the Chorus addresses Oedipus, clearly expressing the idea that his life, just as that of anybody else, is confine by fate, which he cannot escape.Chronos is the father of al l the Olympian Gods, represented as a wise aged(prenominal) man, and kn declare as Father Time. In contrast to this image of Chronos, Kairos is represented dancing, holding the scales of fate in his left field hand with his right hand, he is tipping the scale in one direction or the other. This clearly shows his ability to liberate moments from fate and his detachment from Chronos. Because of this, the moment of the action is often emphasized more than the action itself.This is evident in the Hippocratic Medical Corpus This is the time for administrating gruel that must be most carefully observed Consider this time of great importance in all diseases From this quote, it is clear that the most important factor in the administration of medicine is not the disease the patient has, just now the moment the remedy will be given. This moment must occur at the right time, during the right phase of the illness, in order for the remedy to be successful. The same can be said about Pindar s Pythian 4, an ode to the higher-up of the Pythian games.In Pythian 4, Pindar spends more time describing the process that led the heroes to go on an expedition in search for the gold fleece at the moment they did than he does describing their exploits, which are only summarized. This example is particularly interesting in that through those feats, Jason, the hero of the myth, and his companions will achieve kleos, and will thus transcend Chronos time. However, it is the fact that the expedition left at the right moment that seems important to Pindar, or at least more important than the exploits.In an example such as this one, Kairos does seem to be treated as the agent of the action, or at any rate, as responsible for its success. This gives Kairos an extremely important role, in rehabilitating mans freedom. Indeed, without the existence of Kairos, human beings would be trapped in their fate without any power over their destiny. Kairos is an opportunity and a critical moment, p recisely it is also the due measure that allow humans to influence on the course of their own existences. However, Kairos only allows men to take action it does not take action for them.This is evident in the medical star Physicians generally make the change from fasting to gruel exactly at those clock at which often it is profitable to exchange gruel for what is virtually fasting. One can imagine that relying on such a mode could have led to serious mistakes. The nature of Kairos is such that these mistake could easily have disastrous consequences, for which the physician, and not Kairos, would be responsible. Indeed, Kairos alone is not sufficient for a patient to heal, or for an action to be carried out with success.In order for an action to succeed the individual must act in the right moment scarce must also act correctly. In the medical corpus example, giving gruel could probably have been beneficial, but was not because it was given to the patient at the wrong phase of ti me. This also is why the medical corpus says medications listed can only be efficient in the proper time of their use. In this way, Kairos is a necessary condition, but is in no way sufficient on its own. The positive outcome of an action therefore does not only depend on Kairos, but on the correct interpretation of Kairos.Thus, a wide physician is not one who knows all the different names of every disease, a good physician is one who above all else can read a patients body in order to recognize the phase of time the disease is in, and thus determine what should be done. This is why, according to a passage of the Hippocratic Corpus, every physician should learn the changes of the seasons and the risings and settings of the phenomena in order to learn the times beforehand, which will allow him to succeed best in securing health, and will achieve the greatest triumphs in the practice of his artOur modern concept of time leaves no place for Kairos. The word cannot be translated into m odern English, and even the concept requires a fair amount of explanation, since it falls so outside of the realm of our understanding of both time and fate. The closest word to Kairos in the English language would most likely be the word, opportunity While opportunity brings the way moments in Kairos function with humans agency, it does not fully convey the temporal dimension of Kairos. In modern day society, opportunities are not necessarily always dependent on small windows of time and are often not spontaneous.In this sense, it appears that we can only talk of an opportunity, but not of the moment in which that opportunity takes place. This is to say that the same way Kairos seems marooned from Chronos, our opportunity is detached from time altogether. However, even today, moments of Kairos, though not intentionally, are often taken into consideration when a finality is being made about an action. For example, politicians often read the signs of the political environment or s ocial ambience before making a speech on a particular topic.Similarly, humans use Kairos in everyday interactions as we constantly anticipate each others responses based on the moments we retrieve each other are experiencing. Though Kairos seems unfamiliar and strange in modern society, it is not a concept we are altogether unfamiliar with. 1 . Hippocratic Corpus, Regimen in Acute Diseases p. 79 2 . Sophocles, Oedipus At Colonus 3 . Hippocratic Corpus, Regimen in Acute Diseases p. 79 4 . Hippocratic Diseases, Regimen at Acute diseases p. 97 5 . Hippocratic Corpus, Regimen In Acute Diseases p. 119