kalon

American  

[kuh-lon] / kəˈlɒn /

noun

1. (especially in ancient Greek philosophy) the ideal of beauty, especially moral goodness or nobility.

   He had done what was morally right and necessary, had taken possession of kalon, and thus fulfilled his destiny as a man.

   Achilles decides that his physical life is less important than the demands of kalon.

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Etymology

Origin of kalon

First recorded in 1745–50; from Greek kalón, neuter of kalós, “beautiful, fair”; cf. calli- ( def. )

Example Sentences

But “beautiful” in the Aristotelian sense can also refer to kalon, a Greek word that can indicate a moral beauty, a nobility of spirit.

From Salon • Oct. 16, 2016

Consult, lastly, the philosophers, they will answer you with gibberish: they have to have something conforming to the arch-type of beauty in essence, to the to kalon.

From Voltaire's Philosophical Dictionary by Voltaire

Where, therefore, the Greeks had spoken of to kalon, and we should speak of moral good, Cicero speaks of honestum, and founds precisely similar arguments upon it.

From The History of Roman Literature From the earliest period to the death of Marcus Aurelius by Cruttwell, Charles Thomas

It is not either the to kalon, for many men are deprived of any æsthetic sense.

From Thomas Jefferson The Apostle of Americanism by Chinard, Gilbert

He says to Agesidamus, a youth of Locri—idea te kalon, hôra te kekramenon—whom he had kept waiting for an intended ode, that a debt paid with usury is the end of reproach.

From The Renaissance: studies in art and poetry by Pater, Walter