Thumos (also commonly spelled "thymos") (
Greek ??µ??) is an
Ancient Greek word expressing the concept of "
spiritedness". The word indicates a physical association with breath or blood. The word is also used to express the human desire for recognition.
In Homer's works, thumos was used to denote emotions, desire, or an internal urge. Thumos was a permanent possession of living man, to which his thinking and feeling belonged. When a Homeric hero is under emotional stress he may externalize his thumos, conversing with it or scolding it [1].
In his book The End of History and the Last Man, Francis Fukuyama mentions Thymos in relation to Liberal Democracy and recognition. He relates Socrates' ideas about Thymos and desire to how people want to be recognized within their government. Problems emerge when other people do not recognize another's Thymos and therefore do not provide the justice that it requires. Fukuyama explains how Thymos relates to history with the example of anti-communism in relation to the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, and China. He states, "We cannot understand the totality of the revolutionary phenomenon unless we appreciate the working of thymotic anger and the demand for recognition that accompanied communism's economic crisis"[1] Francis Fukuyama is thought to have inspired the use of Thymos as an argument for liberal democracy by Georg Hegel's work.[citation needed]
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