Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T07:47:07.189Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Greatness of Spirit: A New Virtue for Our Taxonomies?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 June 2017

SOPHIA VASALOU
SOPHIA VASALOU*
Affiliation:
University of Birmingham
*
*<[email protected]>
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In this paper, my aim is to present an unexplored aspect of the Arabic ethical tradition—greatness of spirit—and to assess its philosophical merit. As philosophers in this tradition approach it, greatness of spirit is essentially a virtue of moral aspiration. I consider two construals of the virtue, one as a second-order virtue, another as a virtue whose closest cousin is neo-Aristotelian emulousness. It is the latter that enables us to pick out the substantive commitments the virtue incorporates. These include its emphasis on open-ended aspiration and its self-referential elements. Having isolated these controversial features, I outline some possible defences.

Cet article vise à présenter un aspect peu exploré de la tradition éthique arabe — la grandeur d’esprit — et à évaluer ses mérites philosophiques. Selon les philosophes de cette tradition, la grandeur d’esprit est fondamentalement une vertu d’aspiration morale. J’examine deux interprétations de la vertu, l’une comme vertu de deuxième ordre et l’autre comme vertu apparentée à la vertu néo-aristotélicienne de l’émulation. C’est la seconde interprétation qui nous permet de distinguer les engagements essentiels incorporés dans cette vertu, y compris l’accent mis sur l’aspiration ouverte et les éléments auto-référentiels. Ayant identifié ces caractéristiques discutables, j’esquisse quelques pistes de réponse.

Keywords

greatness of soulgreatness of spiritYahya ibn ‘AdiArabic traditionAristotlevirtue ethics
Type
Articles
Information
Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review / Revue canadienne de philosophie , Volume 56 , Issue 2 , June 2017 , pp. 291 - 316
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Philosophical Association 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Annas, Julia 2011 Intelligent Virtue. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Aristotle 2007 On Rhetoric: A Theory of Civic Discourse, trans. Kennedy, G.A. . New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Avicenna 1988 “Fi ‘ilm al-akhlaq” (“On the Science of Ethics”). In Shams al-Din, ‘Abd al-Amir, ed., al-Madhhab al-tarbawi ‘inda Ibn Sina, 369–377. Beirut: al-Sharika al-‘Alamiyya li’l-Kitab.Google Scholar
Bae, Eunshil 2003 “An Ornament of the Virtues.” Ancient Philosophy 23 (2): 337–349.Google Scholar
Boullata, Issa J. 2006–2009 The Unique Necklace. 2 vols. Reading: Garnet.Google Scholar
Fossheim, Hallvard J. 2006 “Habituation as Mimesis.” In Chappell, T., ed., Values and Virtues: Aristotelianism in Contemporary Ethics, 105–117. Oxford: Clarendon.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fouchécour, Charles-Henri de 1986 Moralia: Les notions morales dans la littérature persane du 3e/9e au 7e/13e siècle. Paris: Éditions Recherche sur les civilisations.Google Scholar
Gauthier, René Antoine 1951 Magnanimité: l’idéal de la grandeur dans la philosophie païenne et dans la théologie chrétienne. Paris: Vrin.Google Scholar
Al-Ghazali, Abu Hamid 1971 Al-Maqsad al-asna fi sharh ma’ani asma’ Allah al-husna (The Most Exalted Aim in Expounding God’s Beautiful Names), ed. Shehadi, F.A.. Beirut: Dar El-Machreq.Google Scholar
Herdt, Jennifer A. 2008 Putting on Virtue: The Legacy of the Splendid Vices. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hume, David 1975 Enquiries Concerning Human Understanding and Concerning the Principles of Morals, ed. Selby-Bigge, rev, L.A.. Nidditch, P.H., 3 rd ed. Oxford: Clarendon.Google Scholar
Hursthouse, Rosalind 1999 On Virtue Ethics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Ibn ‘Adi, Yahya 1978 Tahdhib al-akhlaq (The Refinement of Character), ed. al-Takriti, N.. Beirut and Paris: Editions Oueidat.Google Scholar
Ibn ‘Adi, Yahya 2002 The Reformation of Morals, trans. Griffith, S.. Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Press.Google Scholar
Kant, Immanuel 1991 The Moral Law: Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, trans. Paton, H.J.. London and New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Kekes, John 2008 Enjoyment: The Moral Significance of Styles of Life. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Kristjánsson, Kristján 2002 Justifying Emotions: Pride and Jealousy. London and New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Kristjánsson, Kristján 2007 Aristotle, Emotions, and Education. Aldershot: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Miller, Christian B. 2014 Character and Moral Psychology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Miskawayh, Abu ‘Ali 1966 Tahdhib al-akhlaq (The Refinement of Character), ed. Zurayk, C.K.. Beirut: American University of Beirut.Google Scholar
Miskawayh, Abu ‘Ali 1968 The Refinement of Character, trans. Zurayk, C.K.. Beirut: American University of Beirut.Google Scholar
Miskawayh, Abu ‘Ali, and Hayyan al-Tawhidi, Abu 1951 Al-Hawamil wa’l-shawamil (The Scattered and the Gathered), ed. Amin, A. and Saqr, S.A.. Cairo: Lajnat al-Ta’lif wa’l-Tarjama wa’l-Nashr.Google Scholar
Moody-Adams, Michele 1991 “On the Old Saw that Character is Destiny.” In Flanagan, O. and Rorty, A.O., eds., Identity, Character and Morality, 111–132. Cambridge, MA, and London: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Moran, Richard 2001 Authority and Estrangement: An Essay on Self-Knowledge. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Nussbaum, Martha 1988 “Comment on Paul Seabright.” Ethics 98 (2): 332–340.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pakaluk, Michael 2004 “The Meaning of Aristotelian Magnanimity.” Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 26: 241–275.Google Scholar
Al-Raghib, al-Isfahani 2007 Kitab al-Dhari’a ila makarim al-shari’a (The Pathway to the Noble Traits of the Religious Law), ed. al-‘Ajami, A.Y.A.Z.. Cairo: Dar al-Salam.Google Scholar
Russell, Daniel C. 2009 Practical Intelligence and the Virtues. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Russell, Daniel C. 2015 “Aristotle on Cultivating Virtue.” In Snow, N.E., ed., Cultivating Virtue: Perspectives from Philosophy, Theology, and Psychology, 17–48. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Seabright, Paul 1988 “The Pursuit of Unhappiness: Paradoxical Motivation and the Subversion of Character in Henry James’s Portrait of a Lady.” Ethics 98 (2): 313–331.Google Scholar
Shuraydi, Hasan 2014 The Raven and the Falcon. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Smith, Adam 2009 The Theory of Moral Sentiments, ed. Hanley, R.P.. London: Penguin.Google Scholar
Swanton, Christine 2003 Virtue Ethics: A Pluralistic View. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Swanton, Christine 2015 “Cultivating Virtue: Two Problems for Virtue Ethics.” In Snow, N.E., ed., Cultivating Virtue: Perspectives from Philosophy, Theology, and Psychology, 111–134. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Upton, Candace 2014 “What Virtues Are There?” In van Hooft, S., ed., The Handbook of Virtue Ethics, 165–176. Durham: Acumen.Google Scholar
Vasalou, Sophia 2013 Schopenhauer and the Aesthetic Standpoint: Philosophy as a Practice of the Sublime. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Vasalou, Sophia Forthcoming “An Ancient Virtue and its Heirs: The Arabic Reception of Greatness of Soul.” Journal of Religious Ethics.Google Scholar
Vasalou, Sophia Forthcoming “Greatness of Spirit in the Arabic Tradition.” In Vasalou, S., ed., Virtues of Greatness: Approaches to the Past and Present of Magnanimity.Google Scholar
Walzer, Richard 1962 Greek Into Arabic. Cambridge, MA.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Zagzebski, Linda 2015 “Exemplarism and Admiration.” In Miller, C.B. et al., eds., Character: New Directions from Philosophy, Psychology, and Theology, 251–268. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar