Azcárate and Aristotle: Virtue, Happiness, and Translation

The first Spanish translation of Aristotle’s works came through French and invites a closer look at the meaning of concepts such as areté, eudaimonia, and polis.

We owe the first translation of Aristotle’s works into Spanish to the work of the Spanish philosopher, historian, politician, and translator Patricio de Azcárate (1800–1886).
But the distinguished Spaniard shared something with us: he did not know Greek.
He therefore turned to the version by the French Hellenist Jules Barthélemy-Saint-Hilaire (1805–1895).
And just as he trusted his model, we will have to trust him.
Not reading a work in its original language always reminds us of the Italian saying, «traduttore traditore».
But that is the price we have to pay when we benefit from the work of others.
Azcárate’s work has been the subject of objections.
We have already said that he did not translate it directly from Greek, but from French.
But that is not the only criticism. He is also faulted because some key concepts of Greek politics and ethics are filtered through the vocabulary of nineteenth-century French.
For example, he sometimes translates polis simply as «State» or «Republic», or eudaimonia as «happiness», and this causes the original meaning to be lost, which would be closer to «fulfillment or human flourishing».
Nevertheless, the differences between fulfillment and happiness are matters of nuance.
The temporary euphoria of a sporting victory is not the same as the serene feeling of someone who looks back on a life well lived.
Read in this way, fulfillment and happiness are synonymous.
And polis is the city-state.
It is the only form in which direct democracy could function, considering, moreover, that only free men were citizens.
Translating areté as «virtue» can mislead the reader.
But when we say that a musician is a violin virtuoso, we are not claiming that he is a good person, but pointing to his functional excellence.
In our Judeo-Christian moral tradition, however, we do assign it the meaning of «good person».
Thus, our Constitution establishes that the criterion for distinguishing among people is their «talents and virtues».
That is the normative ideal established by the rule.
In reality, it often does not work that way, and favoritism or political quotas come into play instead.
For the Greeks, the areté of a knife is to cut well.
The areté of the human being, according to Aristotle, is to exercise optimally the faculty that defines him: reason in community.
When Aristotle speaks of «moral virtues» in his Nicomachean Ethics, he is describing the habits that enable human beings to function excellently in their daily lives.
By translating areté as «excellence in function», the text can be understood as a treatise on practical psychology and habits of conduct.
In The Iliad, the areté of the hero who seeks glory even at the cost of his life is portrayed.
Achilles prefers a short and glorious life.
Female areté, for its part, includes mastery of the loom—in The Odyssey, it is Penelope who weaves and unweaves—fidelity to one’s husband, modesty, and prudence, the latter also being a fundamental part of male areté, as well as the preservation of memory and a leading role in funeral rites.
Helen, unfaithful to her husband, is the immediate cause of the Trojan War.
She laments this in several passages, for example when she says to Priam, king of Troy:
«Would that an evil death had pleased me when I came here with your son, leaving behind my bridal chamber, my relatives, my little daughter, and the beloved companions of my own age! But it was not so, and therefore I waste away in tears».
The bearer of female areté is Penelope.
She not only remains faithful to Odysseus, but also uses her ingenuity to keep the suitors at bay throughout the long period in which she waits for his return.
Knowing that behind «virtue» lies excellence and behind «happiness» lies the fulfillment of a life, the classical text can be read with complete clarity, and Don Patricio is acquitted of the charge.
And just as Azcárate brought the philosopher into the nineteenth century, we will try to bring some of his reflections into the twenty-first century, because he still speaks to us today.

Aristotle in translation
Areté and human excellence
Eudaimonia and fulfillment

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