Thomas Aquinas wrote quite a bit about this subject. As readers know, a major part of Aquinas' work was adopting Aristotle's ethics to Christian practice and theology. Here is an area where it might seem that Aristotle and Christianity come apart, though: for as readers of this blog also know, Aristotle's capstone virtue was Magnanimity, which is the virtue of those who use all their other virtues to pursue 'that which is most honorable.' This is actual, complete virtue, and it is the virtue of the best people who deserve the most honor.
To do that which is most honorable is to merit high honors; and to seek to merit high honors is surely prideful, since it sets you above others who deserve less. The Latin word for pride is "superbia," meaning that you think you are better than others. But this man really is better than others, and strives to be so. In doing so, he not only becomes better than others, he becomes the best kind of person. This is really a virtue, too, because it creates an excellence in one's self -- and it also improves things for everyone else, who benefit from all the excellent things being done that merit their respect and gratitude.
Aquinas gives a fairly straightforward answer that aligns magnanimity not with pride but with humility, which might at first seem surprising. The sin of pride is to seek not that which is most honorable, but things beyond what reason tells us is most honorable. To seek that which is best and most honorable, but not beyond what one ought to seek, is humble -- and therefore humility and magnanimity are almost the same thing.
An analogy to Tolkien will make this puzzle become clear. It was the humility of Gandalf that kept him from taking the Ring and striving for the power of Sauron. In this way, however, he was also doing what was most honorable for a being of his station -- he, indeed, was the only one of the wizards who actually remembered and kept to his assigned mission. In this way he is the most praiseworthy of his order, which is magnanimity realized. He strove always for what was best, and never strove to go beyond his place in the created order.
Saruman by contrast shows pride. Appointed to a higher position than Gandalf, to be the White Wizard and the leader of the Order of Istari and the White Council both, he strove to seize the Ring. His pride was his downfall, and led him not to deserve the highest praise but to deserve shame and condemnation.
Honor is therefore a reliable guide to virtue, just as Aristotle says. It may be surprising that a desire for honor turns out to be compatible with humility, but the literary example shows that it is indeed.
Actually, Tolkien never fully worked out whether the Blue Wizards stayed true or went wrong.
ReplyDeleteWell they sure weren’t anywhere helping out when the time came! But perhaps they were taken or lost in the uttermost east.
DeleteLewis put a lot of stock into the motivation behind the desire for advancement. To desire to be a general because one loved one's country and thought they were the person most likely to achieve victory was appropriate. To desire leadership in order to be above one's fellows was not.
ReplyDeleteTo desire leadership in order to be above one's fellows was not [appropriate].
ReplyDeleteYes. Lucifer's pride was his seeking to be above God--or at least, his THINKING that he was above God.
I always come back to Lewis on issues like this, too. Pride should be the feeling that warns us not to stoop to anything base, the "remember who you are" caution, the "God didn't place you on this Earth to do things like that" warning.
ReplyDeleteLewis advised us to go on doing the very best we can with all the gifts we possess, and not to worry about where that places us in the history of man. It's enough to hear from God "well done, thou good and faithful servant," without receiving the plaudits of the human race--though plaudits are lovely if received with joyful humility.
I remember a line from "That Hideous Strength" about what a heady draft it is to have the approval of one's own conscience, in that case a particularly heady one for a young man who was only just awakening to his conscience.
"The Latin word for pride is "superbia," meaning that you think you are better than others. But this man really is better than others, and strives to be so. In doing so, he not only becomes better than others, he becomes the best kind of person."
ReplyDeleteGiven that thinking to be good one should do X, and doing X, one might think they are better than some others (the qualifier is greatly important here), is not the same as thinking one is universally superior, the pinnacle of mankind. It is also not the same as that being an effect as the goal, nor as thinking one simply is better without having done anything to prove that. So I think even Aristotle would agree with Aquinas on this, in some sense (not identically).
So where would Radagast figure in this since he seems to have still been around as well?
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