Kairos: The Alternative Concept of Time

The Greeks had an alternative concept of time: Kairos. The concept attempted to capture the notion of the opportune time. Or the right time. Kairos **considers the appropriateness and propitiousness of an action.

Kairos was often contrasted with chronos, the sequential concept of time. This is the concept we are most familiar with. We know it as clock time. While chronos is quantitative in nature, kairos is more qualitative.

It is possible for something to happen at a certain time, but it does not necessarily imply that it was the right time for that to happen. In that sense, every right time is time, but not all time is the right time. Hippocrates said it better: "every kairos is a chronos, but not every chronos is a kairos.”

Next time you want to do something, ask yourself whether it is kairos, the right time, to do it.