Understanding How the Ancient Greeks Viewed Time Will Make Your Life Richer

“Chronos” is measured and counted, while “kairos” is lived and experienced

McKinley Valentine
The Apeiron Blog

Photo by Nicole Geri on Unsplash

“Whereof we cannot speak, thereof we must remain silent.”

Here, philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein is saying that if we don’t have language to describe something, we can’t talk about that thing — we can’t even think about it. So learning new words to describe aspects of the human experience can help us grow.

One of the most important words I’ve learned over the last decade is kairos.”

The ancient Greeks had two words for time, and kairos was the second. The first was Chronos, which we still use in words like chronological and anachronism. It refers to clock time — time that can be measured — seconds, minutes, hours, years.

Where Chronos is quantitative, kairos is qualitative. It measures moments, not seconds. Further, it refers to the right moment, the opportune moment. The perfect moment. The world takes a breath, and in the pause, before it exhales, fates can be changed.

It’s difficult to describe that feeling if you’ve never experienced it, but if you have, I hope my description can give you a name to call it by and a better…

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Responses (18)

What are your thoughts?

Kairos for me are those moments when I am one with the Universe. A moment in time so grounding and profound, I could cry, I have cried but not from sadness - no, from that immense feeling of joyful connection with all there is. I try with all my…...

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Time dominates our reality for one basic reason.
As mobile organisms, fauna developed a sequential process of perception, coupled with a process of distinction and judgement, in order to navigiate. Than humanity has developed a narrative based…...

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A brilliant article, one of my favorites. Taking a moment of your time, I would like to say, I don’t feel your article is complete without mentioning Hora. In Greek, "Hora (hours) means 'the correct moment'." Emphasizing the "right order" Hesiod…...

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