Education and Science in the Perspective of Searching for Truth in "Ethicos" by Theodore Metochites

1. Entity type Lemma
2. Original titleΗ παιδεία και οι επιστήμες στην προοπτική της αναζήτησης της αλήθειας στον "Ηθικό ή περί παιδείας" του Θεόδωρου Μετοχίτητ
3. Language term Greek, Modern (1453-)
4. lemma author Katsiampoura, Gianna
5. lemma category Ethics - Education, Science and Orthodoxy - History and philosophy of science
6. Publication date 30-11-2017
7. lemma work Μουσαφίρης, Αθανάσιος [Author]. Education and Science in the Perspective of Searching for Truth in "Ethicos" by Theodore Metochites
8. lemma manifestations Education and Science in the Perspective of Searching for Truth in "Ethicos" by Theodore Metochites
9. Keywords Theodoros Metochites - ethics - Philosophy
10. Citations
    1. <p>Mousafiris, Athanasios, <em>Η παιδεία και οι επιστήμες στην προοπτική της αναζήτησης της αλήθειας στον "Ηθικό" του Θεόδωρου Μετοχίτη</em> (<em>Education and Science in the Perspective of Searching for Truth in "Ethikos" by Theodore Metochites</em>), National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens 2017</p>
11. Lemma body

    1. This MA thesis focuses on the work of Theodorus Metochites (1270–1332) entitled ''Ηθικός ή Περί παιδείας'' ("Ethikos or about Education"). It is a testimony of Christian humanism in the Palaeologan period, which presents in a rather typical way the intellectual interests of the scholars of his time. Metochites proposes a form of ideal life, the "life according to the Intelligence", in the perspective of an ongoing quest for truth and human flourishing (eudaimonia), based on the synthesis of the Greek philosophical tradition and Christian Revelation and faith, in a discreet but clear distance from the ascetical morality linked to mystical theology.

       ‘’Ethikos’’ was written around 1305. It was then that he undertook the assignment of Logothetis of the General and several state cases went through his supervision on an empire of Andronicus II Palaeologus. In Ethikos, Metochites urges a new one to deal with ‘’paideia’’ and virtue, in the spirit of the revival of the educational ideals of ancient philosophy before the definitive political and economic decline of the empire that concluded in the Fall of Constantinople in 1453.

        The text as a literary kind recalls the Aristotle’s text ‘’lost Protreptikos’’, which was aimed at turning people (that is how is resulting the name protreptikos) into the philosophy, the knowledge of the truth and the world through science. The concept of ‘’paideia’’ or ‘’logoi’’ doesn’t mean only education but was aimed to the theory of beings, which was led to God. Metochites gets concepts and terms from Plato, Aristotle, Stoics and Neoplatonists, while there are no missing references to other philosophers, such as Socrates, Pythagoras and Epicurus. We also find references to Christian Revelation such as Maximus the Confessor and Cappadocians Fathers such as Basil the Great.

       According to the writer, Athanasios Mousafiris, Metochites presents a particular approach of God in ‘’Ethikos’’. This approach passes through the study of beings, the theory of beings, that is the study of the causes of the beings which lead to the perspective of an ongoing quest for truth which is the God. World, nature and universe is a living organism worthy of admiration, in which the majesty of God is reflected, who Metochites calls perfect Creator and Designer in chapter 32 of Ethikos.