Literary notes about ethos (AI summary)
In literature, "ethos" is employed to evoke the distinctive character or spirit of a group, society, or even a historical period. It often refers to the set of customs, beliefs, or moral attitudes that underpin behavior and identity—as when a local code or “crooked gambling” is sustained by a community’s ethos [1] or when historians search for the very essence of a people’s communal spirit [2]. The term also appears in discussions of aesthetics, capturing everything from the signature style of handwriting as its “genius” or “air” [3] to the ethical underpinnings of subcultures like the hacker community [4]. In this way, ethos functions as a versatile concept that outlines the intrinsic principles and customs that both define and separate different groups.
- They run crooked gambling games, so the law under their local ethos must be that crooked gambling is the norm.
— from The Ethical Engineer by Harry Harrison - Historians, groping for the ethos, have tried to write the history of "the people" of such and such a state.
— from FolkwaysA Study of the Sociological Importance of Usages, Manners, Customs, Mores, and Morals by William Graham Sumner - [141] — “Style” in handwriting is its genius, its ethos, its air, its aroma, its active, its essential principle.
— from The Gunpowder Plot and Lord Mounteagle's Letter, Being a Proof, with Moral Certitude, of the Authorship of the Document Together with Some Account of the Whole Thirteen Gunpowder Conspirators, Including Guy Fawkes by Henry Spink - Instead of viewing the license as a liability, Gilmore saw it as clear and concise expression of the hacker ethos.
— from Free as in Freedom: Richard Stallman's Crusade for Free Software by Sam Williams
