What makes for a flourishing human life? For Aristotle, human flourishing consists, in part, in the exercise of several virtues or excellences, of which the virtue of ‘magnificence’ (megaloprepeia) is one. Unlike familiar virtues such as courage or generosity, scholars have struggled to make sense of magnificence: what kind of virtue is magnificence, exactly, and how does it contribute to a flourishing human life? In this talk, Dr Margaret Hampson explains that magnificence is ultimately concerned with exceeding the necessities of daily living as a means of celebrating and expressing what we value, contributing to our flourishing as social and expressive beings, and bringing colour to our lives. She will also consider the place of this virtue in our increasingly compromised times.
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About the Speaker:
Dr Margaret Hampson is a Lecturer in Ancient Philosophy at the University of St Andrews. She works primarily on Aristotle and Plato’s ethics and moral psychology, in particular on the nature of moral development, and has published in journals such as Phronesis and Mind.