Understanding How the Ancient Greeks Viewed Time Will Make Your Life Richer
“Chronos” is measured and counted, while “kairos” is lived and experienced
“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…