The Greatness of Humility

St. Augustine on Moral Excellence

McInerney

• Publisher: Pickwick Publications
• Year: 2016
• eBook ISBN: 9781498218177
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

The jury is out on the virtue of humility. Most people find humility a more attractive character trait in others than its opposites of pride and arrogance. Yet many philosophers, be they ancient or modern, find little value in humility as a virtue. For the Aristotelian moral tradition, humility is an impediment to greatness. Modern philosophers take this sentiment further, asserting that humility is a sham virtue that leads to unhappiness and human debasement. The Christian intellectual tradition, however, provides a contrast to these negative appraisals of humility. St. Augustine of Hippo is an eloquent and robust proponent of humility's value. Unlike the thinkers of the classical and modern philosophic traditions, Augustine asserts that humility is not only a significant virtue; it is the indispensable foundation of human greatness. The Greatness of Humility traces how Augustine makes his argument regarding the importance of humility and shows how his position measures up to those of his philosophical rivals.

1

Classical Views of Humility and Greatness

The views of ancient Greek and Roman philosophers regarding humility and greatness are important to my study for two primary reasons. First, they form the philosophical foundation from which Western medieval and modern ethical theory developed. The philosophers of classical antiquity established the context in which human excellence would be understood by subsequent generations of thinkers. Human excellence, as we will see, was conceived of as moral excellence in the eudaemonistic context in which the cultivation of virtue led to happiness. Such an approach included implicit assumptions regarding humility and greatness that not only served as foundations for the advances of thinkers such as Augustine, but also served as foils against which modern philosophers, such as Hume and Nietzsche, would react. An example of these assumptions includes the idea that the moral life—the life of virtue—was grasped and acquired through the rational faculties of the human mind. A further example is the moral self-sufficiency asserted by classical Greek philosophers that became a principle Augustine would consciously reject in developing his understanding of humility and greatness. A third example can be seen in the social aspects latent in Aristotelian magnanimity and Ciceronian glory (magnanimity and glory in these contexts were very much concerned with honor and the opinion of others), which would also have significant impact on later thinkers concerned with human excellence.

The second reason classical philosophical thought is important to this study is the influence Greek and Roman philosophy specifically had on the thought of Augustine. Although the large majority of Augustine’s education was mediated through Latin culture and language, the Greek philosophical tradition had a significant effect upon his thinking. The impact of ancient philosophy upon Augustine can hardly be overemphasized.57 Whether it was Cicero’s Hortensius directing him toward the study of philosophy or neo-Platonic philosophy laying the foundation for his rejection of Manichaeism and eventual conversion to Catholicism, classical philosophy was to have considerable influence on Augustine’s thought throughout his life. Augustine’s moral positions have been characterized as Stoic interpretations of Platonic philosophy. Augustine combines the insights of the two schools, which yields an understanding of happiness in which virtue becomes beatitude once a person has achieved intellectual union with God.58 Given the importance of Stoic and neo-Platonic philosophy to the development of Augustine’s moral thought, it is necessary to examine the principles of these schools as significant influences upon Augustine’s view of humility and greatness.

In addition to Stoic and neo-Platonist thought, I will also examine Aristotelian morality. Despite the relatively indirect exposure of Augustine to Aristotle’s writing, it is important to include his thought for two reasons. First, Aristotle’s moral theory is one of the strongest expressions of an approach to morality that includes a focus on virtue and the importance of external goods, both of which he applies to his understanding of moral excellence in his depiction of magnanimity. The inclusion of such external goods in the consideration of moral greatness provides a position that Stoic approaches to the topic react against (although, as we’ll see later, Cicero does not do away with it entirely) and sets a precedent for Augustine’s approach as well. Second, given the merit of Aristotle’s thought, one must account for his description of magnanimity to provide a thorough treatment of the relation between humility and greatness. Working forward chronologically, I will first treat Aristotle’s thought on magnanimity and will then take up Stoic thinking and Cicero’s view of gloria before treating neo-Platonic influences on Augustine, which will focus on the writings of Plotinus.

Magnanimity as the Crown of Aristotelian Virtue

Despite the important role Aristotle’s ethics played in the development of modern and contemporary moral thought, even the most cursory examination reveals marked differences between him and the philosophers that have shaped the modern moral discussion. Aristotle’s eudaemonist approach to morality is significantly different from modern deontological and utilitarian approaches. However, it has significant parallels with the morality of the Stoic and neo-Platonist philosophical traditions so influential in the development of Augustine’s thought. The eudaemonist tradition views morality as the pursuit of a final or supreme good, which is identified with human happiness.59 Happiness, for Aristotle, has two basic elements. The first lies in the ability of a person to function properly as a human being. Proper functioning for Aristotle includes and is defined by the excellence of the function. Thus, in his view, the good or happiness of the human person is an activity of the soul in conformity with excellence, where virtue is seen as the embodiment of such excellence.60 In addition to the happiness achieved through virtue, Aristotle asserts that happiness also depends on the possession of external goods, without which a person is unable to pursue the good of virtue.61 Magnanimity, as Aristotle’s crown of virtue,62 incorporates both as...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Foreword
• Abbreviations
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Classical Views of Humility and Greatness
• Chapter 2: Foundations for Augustine’s View of Humility and Greatness
• Chapter 3: Humility in Augustine’s Moral Thought
• Chapter 4: Augustine on Humility and Human Greatness
• Chapter 5: David Hume and Friedrich Nietzsche on Greatness without Humility
• Chapter 6: The Greatness of Humility
• Bibliography