thymos

Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

  • noun That area of the soul where feelings of pride, shame etc., are located.

Examples

  • Without the sense of pride and the love of struggle that Fukuyama, following Plato, calls thymos, men-and there is always an implication that thymos is a specifically masculine virtue-cannot establish freedom or protect it:

    Maggie's Farm

  • Plato famously divided the soul into three parts: reason, eros (desire) and thymos (the hunger for recognition).

    March 2006

  • But Plato says that there's a third part of the soul which is thymos, which essentially is, in a way, a source of self-esteem, it's the valuing part of the soul.

    The End of History and the Last Man

  • I mean, I think when you understand these great entrepreneurs or founders of big industrial empires -- what's going on is not simply -- as is commonly portrayed -- greedy people wanting more and more, I mean it really comes out of this part of the soul that's called thymos.

    The End of History and the Last Man

  • In the onslaught is displayed the animal excitement, the battle rage, which St. Thomas calls the irascible passion: and of this St. Thomas says, what Aristotle says of thymos, that it is an agency to be used by the rational will within due limits.

    The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 6: Fathers of the Church-Gregory XI

Note

The word 'thymos' comes from a Greek word meaning 'soul; heart'.