Honorable Greatness Denied (2): The Premises
Honorable Greatness Denied (2): The Premises
This chapter aims to outline the underlying dynamic of modern political theories at work in the stories, complicated doubts, and paradoxical denials of John Rawls and Hannah Arendt. The chapter then sketches a representative early modern critique of virtue and especially superior virtue (Hobbes's), the leading attempt to recover morality by a teaching of equal dignity (Kant's), and finally how Nietzschean thought brought about the relativism and postmodern efflorescence—all of which would create the sense of skepticism about human excellence. Thomas Hobbes began this attack by targeting ancient, biblical virtue, as well as the ancients' praise of magnanimity. What Aristotle defined as magnanimity, Hobbes would refer to as foolish and dangerous “vanity.” Thus this chapter outlines the possible origins of this modern skepticism by looking at its critics and their attacking theories on the idea and concept of greatness in an individual.
Keywords: modern political theories, John Rawls, Hannah Arendt, modern critique of virtue, superior virtue, Thomas Hobbes, Kant, human excellence
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