megalopsychos

English

Alternative forms

• megalopsuchos, megalopsukhos, megalopsychus, megalopsykhos

Etymology

From the Ancient Greek μεγᾰλόψῡχος (megalópsūkhos, “great-souled man”, “magnanimous one”), from μεγᾰς (megas, “great”) + ψῡχή (psūkhḗ, “mind”, “spirit”, “soul”).

Noun

megalopsychos (plural megalopsychoi)

1. (in Aristotelian philosophy) Aristotle’s “great-souled man”: an aristocratic paragon who embodies the virtues to an exceptional degree (a figure described chiefly in Aristotle’s Eudemian and Nicomachean Ethics).
   • 1973, Philippa Foot, “Nietzsche: The Revaluation of Values”, in Robert C. Solomon, Garden City, New York, editors, Nietzsche: A Collection of Critical Essays, Anchor Books, →ISBN, page 164:

     Nietzsche could not, for instance, accuse Aristotle of preaching a morality of pity, nor of extolling humility. On the contrary Aristotle’s description of the megalopsychos who possesses the virtue of greatness of soul and “deserves and claims great things” (Nicomachean Ethics 1123 a 15) has much in common with Nietzsche’s picture of the “higher” type of man.

Coordinate terms

• (figure in Aristotelian philosophy): knight of faith (equivalent in Kierkegaardian philosophy), übermensch (equivalent in Nietzschean philosophy)

Related terms

• megalopsychia
• megalopsychy

Translations

Aristotle’s aristocratic paragon of virtue