Crowned with Glory and Honor: The Virtue of Magnanimity, and Its Discontents
Date of Award
Spring 2024
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Religious Studies
First Advisor
Herdt, Jennifer
Abstract
This dissertation is a study of the virtue of magnanimity at the intersection of virtue ethics and political theory. The goal of this dissertation is to give an account of the virtue that is historically informed without being nostalgic, that inspires human excellence without the cultivation of contempt, and that is a viable and attractive source of democratic (not just aristocratic) agency against tyrants and other varieties of domination. It attempts to do so by resourcing three important historical periods of thinking about the virtue: the ancient sources of magnanimity (Aristotle, Cicero, and the Roman Stoics), two Christian appropriations of magnanimity (Augustine and Aquinas), and the deployment of that virtue as a response to the dangers of commercial corruption and democratic mediocrity (Adam Smith, Tocqueville, and Emerson). On the basis of this history, I claim that magnanimity has more liberatory potential than is sometimes realized, that theorizing it properly is an important part of defending the virtue of humility against its opponents, and that it ought to be an attractive ethical resource for opponents of domination to theorize and cultivate.
Recommended Citation
Hawkins, Justin, "Crowned with Glory and Honor: The Virtue of Magnanimity, and Its Discontents" (2024). Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations. 1452.
https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/gsas_dissertations/1452
