Quote Originally Posted by anaxagoras View Post
Or, as another example, "selfishness" is a negative character trait in EB. But just look at Aristotle's megalopsuchos: "Greatness of soul seems to belong to the sort of person that thinks himself, and is, worthy of great things..."(Oxford edition of the Nichomachean ethics, p.148) More examples of anachronistic character traits can be found, but I will not go through my laundry list here (too boring).
Hello anaxagoras, welcome to the .Org and to EB . Good first post!

I agree with your main statement, that classical morality was rather different from our own, but I am not so sure about the examples. Plato argued that the rulers should, under certain conditions, lie to their subjects, but that doesn't mean the Greeks were more tolerant of liars than we are. Lying itself wasn't considered a virtue. A competent liar knows when he can get away with it, but I'd say that would be covered by the political-proficiency line of traits.

As for selfishness, Aristotle argues that faith in oneself is important, but that's not the same thing as selfishness. It's the difference between how you think about yourself; and how you treat others.