Magnanimity in "Man's Search for Meaning"
Here is the Second of Three posts inspired by my trip to Poland.
I returned to the cemetery of millions murdered called Auschwitz. Last time I was here I read Elie Wiesel’s Night, this time Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning. Both are extremely profound books, but Frankl’s organization and concepts expressed are much more philosophical. And it is sound philosophy- I judge Frankl to be a mix of Thomistic Aristotelianism and Pascalian existentialism. Much like our old friend Peter Lawler, who expressed very similar views about psychology to Frankl. Consider this passage:
Sometimes the situation in which a man finds himself may require him to shape his own fate by action. At other times it is more advantageous for him to make use of an opportunity for contemplation and to realize assets in his way. Sometimes man may be required simply to accept fate, to bear his cross. (123)
Just as Aristotle said, the life of action has its peak with the virtue of magnanimity, and the life of the leisure with contemplation. But with the Judeo-Christian eyes of faith, another kind of greatness presents itself, as Pascal pointed out. I call this magnaspirititas. Greatness of Spirit differs from Greatness of Soul in that even small souled, small opportunity people can achieve it- like St. Terese. Or an inmate of the concentration camp like Frankl. He writes:
a few were given the chance to attain human greatness, even through their apparent worldly failure and death, an accomplishment which in ordinary circumstances they would never have achieved (114)
These men, like St Maximilian Kolbe, had greatness of Spirit- which is always unique, but can appear anywhere. Greatness of Spirit in the Pascalian sense is anything truly extraordinary and divine that can be found in the human realm. Lawler describes it as:
openness to the truth, disinterestedness or personal integrity, an ability to comprehend human distinctions, ‘elevation of the spirit’ or breadth of soul, political passion, courage, and a willingness and ability to take responsibility for the most weighty, primarily political, matters (The Restless Mind, 113)
That is what I see Frankl describng in his book- which is surely a triumph of the human spirit over evil. Sound philosophy didn't hurt the book either