ARISTOTLE AGAIN.......

THE Oxford dictionary defines "magnanimous, magnanimity" as : nobly generous, not petty in feelings or conduct.


Magnanimity the accomplishment of humanity, as in the man who has integrated all the virtues , courage , temperance ,  amiability,  generosity, such a person is really at the peak of moral happiness, that is to say, happiness plain and simple.

He is the happiest of men because his humanity is truly accomplished and radiant. This blossoming of a human being who has integrated all the virtues so that they have become inner and almost natural dispositions, Aristotle call magnanimity.

The magnanimous man is the most autonomous. He has no need of others. He is not worried about what others may think of him. It is as if he were above all that. His  great concern is the good, moral perfection , he knows how valuable it is, and because he is capable of great things, he expect recognition and honours, but he is truly worthy of them. Thus he is or could be called the perfect man.

"Now the proud [ magnanimous] man, since he deserves most, must be good in the highest degree." Aristotle thought of him as a great man, "a capable man who does not demean himself with petty concerns,he is a little like a god , superior to ordinary mortals. He is the sort of man to confer benefits but he is ashamed of receiving them , for the one is the mark of a superior , the other of an inferior." 

He must speak and act openly, for he is given to telling the truth, except when he speaks in irony to the vulgar. For it is not the part of a proud man to have a long memory, especially for wrongs, but rather to overlook them . Nor is he a gossip, for he will speak neither about himself nor about another, since he cares not to be praised nor for others to be blamed.

With regard to necessary or small matters, he is least of all men given to lamentation or nagging , the asking of favors . He is one who will possess beautiful and profitless things rather than profitable and useful ones ; for this is more proper to a character that suffices to itself.

At a first glance , this magnanimous man might be taken to be a very proud man in the modern sense of the word , almost pompous, He seeks to be perfectly accomplished .  Is he not, underneath it all, seeking his own aggrandizement and perfection ??

This is not in fact the case at all . The proud man (in the conventional modern sense) is the centre of his own world . He is not interested in others . Whereas, for Aristotle, the magnanimous man is interested in others, and in a manner that is great and noble , and in that, would be all the difference.




I have used the word "man" in the generic sense , whereby "human being" or "men and women" could have been more appropriate.
Paragraphs in italics are direct quotations from Aristotle.
English translations of Aristotle texts were by W. Ross , T. Irwin , and the texts and expertize of J. Vanier . MY  thanks to all, and to my readers.