ORDER INVARIANT AS AN ECHO OF WAR: THE GENESIS OF THE TERM ΤΑΞΙΣ IN ANCIENT GREEK CULTURE (PART 1)
Keywords:
ancient philosophy, culture, hermeneutics, idea of order, κόσμος (cosmos), order, τάξις (taxis)Abstract
The article analyzes the genesis of the term τάξις (taxis) within the framework of H.G. Gadamer’s hermeneutic approach, drawing on the historical and cultural specificities of Ancient Greece in order to identify the mechanisms of transformation of the term itself and its contemporary interpretation. The article traces the semantic and conceptual transformation of the term τάξις in the ancient Greek intellectual tradition from the Archaic to the Classical period. Special attention is paid to the functional usage of τάξις in ancient Greek texts, as well as to the reconstruction of the development of its meaning based on materials from early and classical poetry and philosophy. It is established that the primary meaning of the term, attested in its military sense, forms the foundation for its further rationalized conceptualization of the experience of war. Furthermore, the analysis shows that war (in ancient Greek thought: πόλεμος (polemos), ἔρις (eris)) is a critical factor that constitutes a fundamental precondition for the formation of new forms of sociocultural order and contributes to the further organization of society. Ultimately, the findings suggest that the term τάξις undergoes significant semantic changes through an interconnected process of historical and cultural development, eventually evolving into a universal category of order. Initially, the close association between organization and κόσμος within its religious (mythological) context is weakened, while τάξις emerges as a term denoting the purely practical dimension of arrangement, detached from its earlier religious associations. Subsequently, the meaning of τάξις gradually shifts toward the process or operation of ordering itself. Poetry further expands the figurative potential of the term, thereby creating the conditions for its subsequent conceptual transformation. Building on τάξις as a term already established within the Greek cultural tradition, Plato abstracts its essential meaning from its particular domains of application, especially its military usage, conceptualizing the term as an independent invariant of the general idea of order. Aristotle, in turn, shifts the emphasis from order as a general state to order as the internal organization of a whole.
References
Aeschylus. (1926). Persians (H.W. Smyth, Trans.). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Retrieved from: https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0011
Aetius. (2023). Placita (J. Mansfeld, D. Runia, Eds. and Trans.). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Aristotle. (1924). Metaphysics (W.D. Ross, Ed.). Oxford: Clarendon Press. Retrieved from: https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0051
Aristotle. (1966). Aristotle’s Ars Poetica (R. Kassel, Ed.). Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Bailey, H.W. (1985). Indo-Scythian Studies Being Khotanese Texts (Vol. 7). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Bailly, A.G.G., Charbonnet, A., Wilde, M., Maréchal, B. (2020). Dictionnaire grec-français (4e éd). Retrieved from: https://bailly.app
Beekes, R.S.P. (2010). Etymological Dictionary of Greek. Boston: Brill.
Boardman, J. (1991). Greek Sculpture: The Classical Period. Corrected edition. London: Thames and Hudson.
Boardman, J. (1998). Early Greek Vase Painting, 11th–6th Centuries BC. London: Thames & Hudson.
Bogachov, A. (2013). Hermeneutical approach in philosophy. [In Ukrainian]. Philosophical Thought, 5, 41–50.
Burckhardt, J. (1999). The Greeks and Greek Civilization (O. Murray, Ed.; S. Stern, Trans.). New York: St. Martin’s Griffin.
Burkert, W. (1977). Griechische Religion der archaischen und klassischen Epoche. Stuttgart: W. Kohlhammer.
Chantraine, P. (1980). Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque: histoire des mots. Paris: Éditions Klincksieck.
Comte-Sponville, A. (2013). Dictionnaire philosophique (4e éd). Nürnberg: PUF.
Cornford, F.M. (1912). From Religion to Philosophy: A Study in the Origins of Western Speculation. Edward Arnold.
Diels, H., Kranz, W. (1903). Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker. Berlin: Weidmann.
Dumézil, G. (1977). Les dieux souverains des Indo-Européens. Paris: Gallimard.
Echeverría, F. (2021). The Hoplite Revolution and the Nature of Hoplite Warfare. In: W. Heckel, F.S. Naiden, E.E. Garvin, J. Vanderspoel (Eds.), A Companion to Greek Warfare (pp. 75–97). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
Frisk, H. (1970). Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch (Bd. 2). Heidelberg: Carl Winter Universitätsverlag.
Gadamer, H.G. (1990). Wahrheit und Methode: Grundzüge einer philosophischen Hermeneutik. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck.
Golubovych, I., Ryzhik, M. (2024). Transit of Hindu mythology: Role of biographical method in multicultural landscape. Skhid, 6(3), 58–64.
Hanson, V.D. (2009). The Western Way of War: Infantry Battle in Classical Greece. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Hegel, G.W.F. (1986). Vorlesungen über die Geschichte der Philosophie I (Bd. 18). Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp.
Heidegger, M. (1983). Einführung in die Metaphysik (P. Jaeger, Ed.; Gesamtausgabe, Vol. 40). Vittorio Klostermann.
Heidegger, M. (2000). Über den Humanismus (Bd. 10). Frankfurt a.M.: Vittorio Klostermann.
Herodotus. (1920). The Histories (A.D. Godley, Trans.). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Retrieved from: https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0125
Hintikka, J. (1967). Time, Truth, and Knowledge in Ancient Greek Philosophy. American Philosophical Quarterly, 4(1), 1–14.
Homer. (1919). Odyssey (2 Vols.; A.T. Murray, Trans.). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Retrieved from: https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0135
Homer. (1920). Homeri Opera (Vols. 1–5). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Retrieved from: https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0133
Horky, P.S. (2024). Order and Chaos in the Ancient Greco-Roman Philosophical Imagination. Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 1, 1–16.
Horky, P.S. (Ed.). (2019). Cosmos in the Ancient World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hotynian-Zhuravlova, V.V., Sumchenko, I.V. (2024). Culture as a system of moral values: An analysis of the causes of its emergence. [In Ukrainian]. Cultural Almanac, 1(9), 310–116.
Jaeger, W. (1947). The Theology of the Early Greek Philosophers. Clarendon Press.
Kahn, C.H. (1960). Anaximander and the Origins of Greek Cosmology. Columbia University Press.
Kuntz, P.G. (Ed.). (1968). The Concept of Order. Seattle: University of Washington Press.
Lewis, C.T., Short, C. (1879). A Latin Dictionary. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Retrieved from: https://atlas.perseus.tufts.edu/dictionaries/entry/urn:cite2:scaife-viewer:dictionary-entries.atlas_v1:lat.ls.perseus-eng2-n32947/?utm_source=copilot.com
Liddell, H.G., Scott, R., Stuart, J.H.S., McKenzie, R. (1996). A Greek-English Lexicon (9th ed). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Retrieved from: https://artflsrv03.uchicago.edu/philologic4/LSJ/
Lorand, R. (2000). Aesthetic Order: A Philosophy of Order, Beauty and Art. London: Routledge.
Montanari, F. (2015). The Brill Dictionary of Ancient Greek. Leiden: Brill.
Nietzsche, F. (1954). Friedrich Nietzsche: Werke in drei Bänden (K. Schlechta, Ed.) (Bd. 3, SS. 291–299). München. Retrieved from: http://www.zeno.org/Philosophie/M/Nietzsche,+Friedrich/Fünf+Vorreden+zu+fünf+ungeschriebenen+Büchern/5.+Homers+Wettkampf
Peloponnesian War. (2026). Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved from: https://www.britannica.com/event/Peloponnesian-War
Plato. (1903). Platonis Opera (J. Burnet, Ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Retrieved from: https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/searchresults?q=plato
Prigogine, I., Stengers, I. (1984). Order out of Chaos: Man’s New Dialogue with Nature. New York: Bantam New Age Books.
Reichert, K. (2005). The problem of translating Anaximander’s dictum as a problem of reconstructing an archaic worldview. [In Ukrainian]. Doxa, 8, 150–159.
Sattler, B.M. (2017). How Natural Is a Unified Notion of Time? Temporal Experience in Early Greek Thought. In: I. Phillips (Ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Temporal Experience (pp. 1–17). London: Routledge.
Shevtsov, S.P. (2013). Metamorphoses of Law. [In Ukrainian]. Odesa: Osvita Ukrainy.
Thucydides. (1942). Historiae (Vols. 1–2). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Retrieved from: https://artflsrv03.uchicago.edu/philologic4/Greek/navigate/435/table-of-contents/
Vernant, J.P. (1981). Les origines de la pensée grecque (4e éd). Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.
Vlastos, G. (1947). Equality and Justice in Early Greek Cosmologies. Classical Philology, 42(3), 156–178.
West, M.L. (1987). Introduction to Greek Metre. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
West, M.L. (1992). Ancient Greek Music. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Xenophon. (1961). Xenophontis Opera Omnia (Vol. 3). Oxford: Clarendon Press. Retrieved from: https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0201
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
