Hebraism and Hellenism

I believe in democracy, but real democracy, not democracy as we see it even in its highest forms in the real world. The democracy that I believe in entails that the people themselves should be the actual deciders of how they’re governed, and that they have authority over their representatives to actually enforce their decisions. While this is absolutely true, that I believe all this, I hesitate moving beyond this idea on a theoretical or idealistic level. This isn’t simply because we’re so far from this ideal in the real world. I also struggle in the same way many have struggled over the years: I distrust the masses. I judge their general character as poor, I view them as generally ignorant, and I highly doubt I would willingly put my life in their hands.ⁱ

For this reason, I understand why system-designers so frequently resort to basically trying to trick the masses into doing something good. But there are obvious problems with this approach. For instance, relying on manipulation to achieve something good falls prey to more effective manipulation that aims toward something worse. In this way, reliance on manipulation for good is unstable, insecure. As well, these designs so obviously improve and resist manipulative attacks so much better as more of us become better. And I still believe from deep within my soul that the vast majority of us have the potential for such better things, but, somehow, in practice the vast majority of us fail to achieve this. Here lies the problem. I suspect the solution is, at base, cultural, and in many respects lies in discovering our values and doing what is necessary to train and build ourselves into the people needed in society.ⁱⁱ But I don’t want to just leave this as a vague and general concept. Today I want to discuss something a bit more concrete that I believe can help guide us on this path to becoming better people, to creating a better world: the twin concepts of Hebraism and Hellenism.

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I was introduced to the ideas of Hebraism and Hellenism by Matthew Arnold, the Victorian-era, English poet and social critic.ⁱⁱⁱ Hebraism and Hellenism are ideals, separate paths toward perfection, or to being the best one can be, to doing the best one possibly can.^iv Hebraism derives from the Ancient Hebrew ideal that the path to perfection is through perfect practice. By following the ancient laws as closely as one can, one becomes good and does good, without necessarily understanding why God requires specific actions performed specific ways. Hellenism, in contrast, deriving from Ancient Greek philosophy, is the assertion that the path to perfection is through perfect understanding. With the Hellenistic perspective, the broader and deeper one’s knowledge becomes, the better they understand how they should act, and, therefore, they do better and become better in the process. In Arnold’s presentation of these concepts, he asserts that the true path to the best self is likely through a combination of both and, while I agree with him, it can be tempting to place one well above the other in relative importance toward this goal. In this way, long before I encountered these ideas, I was well underway my quest to broaden and deepen my knowledge on many subjects that I felt impacted me. As I did so, I could tangibly feel my life improving in numerous ways—including concrete improvements in my character and general outlook on life—and so I strongly gravitated toward Hellenism as the true path to the best self. After some soul-searching, however, I realized how unequipped and limited I would have been to employ such an approach at different times in my life. In my youth, for instance, I lacked the knowledge and experience to come close to an understanding of how I should act, let alone the time to build up such a basis before action was required of me. Instead, I relied on largely irrational, personal feelings and the advice of mentors to guide me. This, of course, led to good things and bad things, it shaped me in good ways and bad ways, likely more good than bad when honest and thoughtful mentors were involved. Reflecting on these concepts in this way led me to nuances in my views that I feel can help us understand how to employ ideas like Hebraism and Hellenism in a practical way.

As stated above, I agree with Arnold that the true path to the best self is through a combination of Hebraism and Hellenism, but this doesn’t mean that the focus should be on both equally at all times in one’s life. Much like with my experiences, when one’s young, inexperienced, and ignorant, the focus should be almost entirely on Hebraism, with practice guided by trusted mentors. This is for at least a couple of reasons. For one, to wait until one fully understands things before acting would be to fail to act, as there’s so much that someone at this stage requires to even begin to approach true understanding. Action is necessary, not only because to remain static is not to live, but because one needs to build experiences in order to learn and grow. On top of this, to attempt a primarily Hellenistic approach at this stage would be to fail to do so, likely without realizing it. For, not only is one unequipped to gain broad and deep understanding, but it’s easy for someone ignorant and inexperienced to encounter an idea or half an idea and run with it, thinking they know something when, really, they only know a small piece of something.

Nonetheless, even at this early stage, one should strive to start adding to one’s knowledge and experience, thereby building a foundation where understanding can guide practice instead of obedience toward the advice of others. But this takes time and effort. One can expect to gain insight on only so much and only so fast, as it requires not only a buildup of knowledge, but also thoughtful consideration of this knowledge. Things must be ordered, organized, put right in the head, before one can be truly said to understand a topic or concept. And, even then, things will often arise that make the person that went through this long process see the error in their views. In this case, they need to add to their information and deliberate on it further before they can settle their ideas once more. To fail to undergo this process is to attempt a Hellenistic approach only in a cursory fashion, which is effectively akin to not attempting it at all.

The goal at this stage is to learn to function independently and well. As knowledge and experience builds up, this should lead to the loss of mentors and the gain of associates, others—equals—who can still be turned to for advice. The hope should be that others who are undergoing a similar process of Hebraism with added and increasing Hellenism possess knowledge and experience in places one lacks, and so they can advise on these topics. Here, however, the approach is less to follow as exactly as possible what one is told. Instead, the advice is considered and weighed against one’s own knowledge and experiences before choosing how best to act. With time and continual effort, one’s knowledge, experience, and general understanding should grow. At this stage, Hellenism should largely supplant Hebraism on one’s path to the best self.^v Assuming the individual never gave up their pursuit of Hellenistic understanding, they step into the role of the mentor. The more people who take up this task and take it up well, the better our mentors become. Then the young, the inexperienced, and the ignorant may have stronger faith in following their guidance. In this way, the cycle begins anew, but better than before.

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As stated above and in last month’s essay,¹ to become the people we need to be in order to do the best we can in this world, we first need to look inward and around us to understand our true values and how we embody them. We then need to create the spaces where we can safely come together and support each other in our difficult task of becoming the best people we can, that society truly needs. Hopefully, as we undergo this process, we can embrace ideas like Hebraism and Hellenism to help us focus on what to do and when to do it, in order to help us succeed in our mission.

One task that often feels insurmountable in all this is convincing people to start. I honestly have no idea how to effectively approach this. I’ve tried to explain how my attempts to do all this have greatly benefited me, mostly mentally and emotionally, and that I’m fairly certain it’s the only way forward, the only way I can see that could lead to the better people and better world that I suspect most of us desire, but this approach consistently fails. I suspect that part of the issue is that, at the heart of this argument, I’m asking people to work extremely hard and basically to never stop working hard, that the reward for hard work is effectively more hard work. When so many people find the work they already do so draining as it is, asking them to work more, to work harder, when they otherwise would finally have a moment to rest, seems a tall ask. The difference that is difficult to show to someone who hasn’t done the work, however, is that the work I’m asking to be done enriches instead of draining. Yes, putting in the work to learn and grow and become your best self is tiring and there are certainly times where I’m exhausted and can’t focus and I feel like I can’t keep doing this, but more often than not it feels tiring in a way that energizes, like the feeling I get after a good workout. I know that many will never understand, but I also feel like I will never be able to stop now that I’ve started and gone as far as I have. And I hope at least some people will one day choose to follow.

Notes

i. I honestly don’t feel good putting my life in the hands of contemporary decision-makers, for that matter, but the point is that I don’t think we’d necessarily be better off if we handed power and authority over to the masses more generally, as they actually are in the real world. This is a case where I doubt that simply changing the system will fix the problem.

ii. Last month’s essay elaborates on this idea.¹

iii. For more information about Matthew Arnold and other ideas he put forward, refer my previous essay on criticism.²

iv. I’m fairly certain that believers in these concepts fully understand that perfection is unattainable, but idealistic concepts provide a goal or trajectory, where the idea isn’t to achieve perfection but, instead, to attempt to come as close to the ideal as one can.

v. Keep in mind, however, that Hebraism should never be truly abandoned, in part because one can never know everything and so everyone will be always required to act at least sometimes without possessing a deeper understanding of what and how and why. As well, practice always remains important, but an individual’s knowledge begins to guide practice in the place of the direction of others as it broadens and deepens.

References

1. Kosoris A. “On Culture.” (6 Jul 2025.) kosoris.com/essays/on-culture/.
2. Kosoris A. “Practicalities and criticism.” (1 Dec 2024.) kosoris.com/essays/practicalities-and-criticism/.