According to Aristotle, we can possess Intellectual and Moral Virtues. The Moral Virtues are reflections of our emotional characteristics and are reflections of our character when our emotions are properly calibrated so that we feel the right way towards the right situations. Every emotional state can either be taken too far or not far enough and so each Moral Virtue lies somewhere between these two extremes – that is, each Moral Virtue lies between two Vices and to be virtuous we must find that balance.
In this discussion we will look at the Moral Virtue of Magnanimity which, when it realised in its full, becomes the crown of the Moral Virtues.
If you tend to be too self-assured you are vain – this is the first vice. If you are not self-assured enough, you are too humble - this is the second vice.
To be magnanimous is to feel assured of your position, worth and virtue without either becoming vein or too humble and it is closely related to respect and honour.
To open this discussion, it is first worth noting that Aristotle didn’t believe that all people deserved an equal level of respect. Instead, he argued that there were grounds for having more or less respect for certain people and that these grounds were important. Namely, people are more or less deserving of respect depending on how much virtue they possess. That is, as opposed to being given respect due to a position or status they have fallen into for some arbitrary reason such as good luck. If someone is born into being a leader by luck, they are not deserving of respect, but if someone has Moral Virtues that permit them to be a leader, even if they develop these Virtues after being born into that role – then they are deserving of respect.
Aristotle then points out that if someone were to recognise that they really do have Moral Virtue and quality, that they should recognise that fact and expect the according level of respect. On the same vein however, if someone’s moral merits are only minor, they should also expect to be respected accordingly. This takes us back to the balance of the spectrum: if you deserve to be respected and honoured due to your merits, it is wrong to refuse to be honoured, even when you deserve it – this falls too far to the side of humility. However, to arrogantly expect or demand that you deserve more respect than you do errs too far towards the side of vanity. Despite this, the right level of modesty to keep vanity in check – so long as it doesn’t throw you too far towards too much humility – can be a good sign of self-constraint.
Instead of being too humble or vein, you should be magnanimous. A magnanimous person is someone who will behave in a dignified way that expresses their own awareness of their moral superiority to others. This might be hard to picture because the common image of someone who is so self-assured of their own worth is that of the vein, narcissistic tyrant who throws their weight around demanding respect from everyone. That's why the point about being dignified is worth stressing – a magnanimous person will hold their self-assurance in a dignified way. Instead of a tyrant, perhaps picture a calm, collected army officer instead; imagine that this army officer is a good man, a good soldier and possesses great Moral Quality and also imagine that his troops recognise this too. If the officer were magnanimous, he would carry out great tasks; be a good soldier on the field, be a good leader to his troops and be Moral in many ways; Brave, Temperate, Good Humoured and the like. Now, this officer need not throw his weight around or raise his voice. Instead, he can quietly recognise his deserved superior position over the rest of his troops, not needing to raise his voice per-se but checking disrespect as and when it genuinely occurs. Also, unlike the narcissistic tyrant, if a better man than the officer was to make himself know to the magnanimous officer, the officer would respect that better man as his own superior.
For a person to be magnanimous they must recognise their Moral Qualities but, of course, for us to recognise our general moral qualities we must first have those Moral Qualities. This is why Aristotle doesn’t suggest that we rush in to being magnanimous – it is not a virtue that can be accessed as (relatively) easily as – say – Bravery or Temperance because we would need to be Brave and Temperate before we could be magnanimous. That is why magnanimity is called the “crown” of the virtues, because it is the virtue that is placed on top of all of the others once we possess them. Or, in so far as we can be magnanimous without being perfectly virtuous, we can only be so to the degree that we really are virtuous.
In the material, the author has provided an extended summary of the magnanimous man, and
because magnanimity entails the other Moral Virtues, it is worth reading out in full here to serve as a summary for how someone is to be morally virtuous:
“The magnanimous man knows that he possesses what it is important for a man to possess, and he places little value on anything else. He is pleased when gentlemen of taste recognise his merits, but he disdains praise from the wrong men for the wrong reasons. He is only moderately pleased by power and wealth and other goods of fortune, and makes the best of bad fortune. Only a few things are important enough to make him take risks; but he will be supremely courageous when necessary, because not even his own life is important to him, if preserved at the expense of his values. He is pleased to confer benefits on others, but never asks for them in return and is reluctant to receive them. He will not wrong other people, but if they wrong him, he is quick to forget it. His manner is dignified to those in positions of power and influence, but unassuming to those of middle station, and self-deprecating to those of lower rank. He is open in his loyalties and animosities and speaks his mind plainly, for scheming is foreign to his nature. He will not allow his life to revolve around anybody else, except a true friend. He will not gossip, for neither the good nor the bad qualities of others are his concern. He will not raise his voice or rush about in excitement, for that would indicate that the details of life matter more than they do. He is dignified, because he enjoys the dignity of a man who deserves respect.”
This, in its essence, appears to be a summary of someone who possess all of the Moral Virtues that Aristotle recommends. Such a person would be better equipped to do the right thing; be the right person and live the right kind of happy, successful life. Such a person would be magnanimous; recognise their own qualities and, in light of these qualities, have their own self-respect and be deserving of the genuine respect of others.