Wow, CJ! I agree, I think, w/ AM's characterization of Aquinas's "charitable misunderstanding" of the magnanimous man.
A book I have on my shelf, but haven't gotten around to, is Natural Reason and Natural Law: An Assessment of the Straussian Critique of Thomas Aquinas, by James Carey. He sides with Aquinas against Jaffa. Carey is not widely known, but when I did my master's degree at St. John's College, Santa Fe, he seemed to me the wisest teacher there, with only David Bolotin coming close. As Eastern Orthodox, though, he had his own set of criticisms of Aquinas.
To say that Aquinas "charitably misunderstood" magnanimity may have to do with the lines from Aristotle about the mananimous man despising and looking down on others.
Aquinas claims the magnanimous man would only look down on bad behavior, "things beneath what is becoming to a man," but Aristotle probabably intended to refer to a broader range of people- including weak and poor people.
In his book "Dependent Rational Animals," Chapter 10, MacIntyre presents Aristole's magnanimous man without Aquinas' charitable gloss- and critiques it. To lack gratitude is an injustice- and yet the magnanimous man is supposed to have the virtue of justice and all the other moral virtues.
There's some agreement with that last point from Mary Nichols in her newer commentary on the NE, but she presents it as Aristotle knowing/hinting that his "MM" is a limited and problematic figure--his lack of gratitude will be contrasted later on with the full justice of the equitable judge, and with a (brief) mention also in book V of some Greeks being taught by a cult of the Graces to embrace reciprocal giving.
Did Aquinas misunderstand Aristotle (at least on the magnanimous man)? Or did Jaffa and MacIntyre misunderstand Aquinas? Either way, this sends me back to Aquinas to read more. Thanks for the book recommendation by Carey, and for this conversation that reminded me of Jaffa on Aquinas.
Wow, CJ! I agree, I think, w/ AM's characterization of Aquinas's "charitable misunderstanding" of the magnanimous man.
A book I have on my shelf, but haven't gotten around to, is Natural Reason and Natural Law: An Assessment of the Straussian Critique of Thomas Aquinas, by James Carey. He sides with Aquinas against Jaffa. Carey is not widely known, but when I did my master's degree at St. John's College, Santa Fe, he seemed to me the wisest teacher there, with only David Bolotin coming close. As Eastern Orthodox, though, he had his own set of criticisms of Aquinas.
I thought alot about what MacIntyre may have meant by that.
The "principle of charity" in logic means that you interpret a statement in the most generous way possible for it to still make sense.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principle_of_charity
To say that Aquinas "charitably misunderstood" magnanimity may have to do with the lines from Aristotle about the mananimous man despising and looking down on others.
Aquinas claims the magnanimous man would only look down on bad behavior, "things beneath what is becoming to a man," but Aristotle probabably intended to refer to a broader range of people- including weak and poor people.
https://www.newadvent.org/summa/3162.htm#article1
In his book "Dependent Rational Animals," Chapter 10, MacIntyre presents Aristole's magnanimous man without Aquinas' charitable gloss- and critiques it. To lack gratitude is an injustice- and yet the magnanimous man is supposed to have the virtue of justice and all the other moral virtues.
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Dependent_Rational_Animals/EYSotaFYZYIC?hl=en&gbpv=1
There's some agreement with that last point from Mary Nichols in her newer commentary on the NE, but she presents it as Aristotle knowing/hinting that his "MM" is a limited and problematic figure--his lack of gratitude will be contrasted later on with the full justice of the equitable judge, and with a (brief) mention also in book V of some Greeks being taught by a cult of the Graces to embrace reciprocal giving.
Did Aquinas misunderstand Aristotle (at least on the magnanimous man)? Or did Jaffa and MacIntyre misunderstand Aquinas? Either way, this sends me back to Aquinas to read more. Thanks for the book recommendation by Carey, and for this conversation that reminded me of Jaffa on Aquinas.