Dictionary

megalopsychos en · NOUN

Etymology

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

Meanings

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).
   • 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. 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:

Forms

Coordinates

knight of faith (figure in Aristotelian philosophy) · übermensch (figure in Aristotelian philosophy)

Relateds

megalopsychia · megalopsychy

Translations (1)

pl megalopsychos (Aristotle’s aristocratic paragon of virtue)