What is ’hybris’ according to Greek philosophy?

This concept associated with Ancient Greece marked the way of reasoning of the first thinkers.

Greek philosophy is marked by tensions and distensions between humans and gods.. Classical are the reflections and narratives concerned with the relationship between the mortal and the divine, the wrong and the perfect, order and immoderation.

In this context, transgression has been one of the figures found in the background of the myths and stories that gave rise to the most classical Greek philosophy, and that among other things allowed the latter to have effects and functions in the social order.

There is for the Greeks a necessary natural order, which governs conduct and which must be maintained and respected. Nature (of which gods and humans are part) organizes and regulates the world, the body and the soul, maintains an order that must not be contradicted. The concept of hibriswhich we will see developed below, has to do with that.

The hibris and the order of the cosmos.

In Greek philosophy, human beings are part of an order called "cosmos". In such an order there is no room for sharp distinction between the human and the divine, nature and soul, biology or culture. Nevertheless, it is an order in which human beings recognize themselves as distinct from the divine.humans are limited, neither immortal nor omnipresent like the gods, they are the other way around: finite and perishable.

As there is awareness of immortality, there is also awareness of one's own limits, and there is then the possibility of transgression. The problem is that transgression is a sign of ignorance of limits and of one's own human condition, which means equating oneself to the condition of gods through a narcissistic ego.

Hybris is the word with which the latter is represented: is the state of the absence of measurewhich is also the state of the greatest transgression, in which none of the human beings should fall. The duty of humans, contrary to this, is to "know themselves", which means to know one's limits, to avoid excesses and to preserve moderation. Hybris is the state that breaks with homogeneity, disrupts the order of cosmos and social order.

Thus, hybris represents daring and excess, the splitting of the cosmos and the political order. It is the opposite of prudence, which is closer to the idea of human humility and invites us to think and live ourselves in the recognition of our own limits. Hybris represents the act of aspiring to more than what is actually possible, going against the "moira" which means "part", "lot" or "destiny"., going against the "moira" which means "part", "lot" or "destiny", and refers to what has been allotted to each "being", including the possibilities of "doing".

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Heroes and political ethics

One of the great problems raised by some Greek philosophers is when those who fall into hybris are the human beings in charge of governing. The tyrant, who stumbles into what the Greeks called "pleonexia" (the insatiable motivation, the desire to always have more), is the representation of the ultimate transgression. the representation of the ultimate transgression.

He who has fallen into hybris does not regulate himself, does not measure himself by moderation, and is therefore not the right person to govern. The opposite is the case of the figure of the hero of Greek tragedies, who also has a sometimes insatiable desire for power. This desire causes him blindness and closeness to hibrisbut it does not represent a deliberate offense against the gods.

However, they do fall into pride and arrogance, so they are not saved from divine punishment: the nemesis; a figure that represents revenge, justice and balancing punishment. Herodotus, one of the fathers of history, said that "divinity tends to bring down everything that stands out too much".

The Agamemnon of the Homeric Iliad and commander of the Trojan attack; Oedipus Rex, who killed his father and married his mother; and some emperors such as Caligula and Nero, are just some of the Greek characters who reached the hibris. Overconfidence has the consequence of not taking into consideration the experiences, ideas and mentalities of others, so that the consequences or the reactions of others are not foreseen, and the "nemesis" easily returns the balance.

Hybris syndrome

Through the concept and history of hibris it has been easier to represent the figure of the excess of consumption, the contemporary tendency to "pleonexia" and the sensation of insatiability that runs through subjectivities, becoming increasingly narcissistic.becoming more and more narcissistic.

A clearer example can be found in the evident ambition for political power of the subjectivity of the tyrant, or the excessive ambition for knowledge that leads to overconfidence, impatience or thoughtless hyperactivity.

Hybris is the state inspired by exaggerated passions, thoughtless actions. It represents the obstinacy, the fixation to preconceived ideas and the rejection of contrary or foreign ideas, arrogant treatment and narcissism.

It is an immoderation that disorganizes and corrupts, but it is far from the meaning of the word.but which is far removed from the individual meaning we attribute to "madness" in our age, which is precisely loaded with hibris.

Nevertheless, the figure hibris has been used to represent, even in clinical terms (such as "syndrome"), personalities characterized by an eccentric and excessive ego that results in the disregard of others.