Generosity, Magnanimity - Aristotle and Sirach, 6-28-2010

 Compare Nicomachean Ethics, Book IV, Chapters 1 - 3 with Sirach, 29:

He does a kindness who lends to his neighbor, and fulfills the precepts who hold out a helping hand. To a poor man, however be generous; keep him not waiting for your alms; Because of the precept, help the needy, and in their wants, do not send them away empty-handed.

The Jew and the Greek do not seem so far apart in recognizing generosity, or magnanimity, as a virtue. The Jews found the virtues as part of the Law; the Greeks find a rational basis for the virtue.

I see nothing here that would not include the Christian. Therefore, I do not see any grounds for objecting to the use of these materials for teaching ethics. Read Matthew 6, 19 -21.

But do these virtues apply to the modern world? For Aristotle, there is the deserving poor; Sirach seems to imply the poor are deserving. I am sure there were goldbrickers and featherbedders and other bums, just as there are now. Americans despise the poor. Sirach, 13, 22 -23 indicates nothing new about some of our modern attitudes:

A rich man speaks and all are silent, his wisdom they extol to the clouds. A poor man speaks and they say: "Who is that?" If he slips they cut him down. Wealth is good when there is no sin; but poverty is evil by the standards of the proud.

I find parallels in Sirach, 14. 3 - 13, and in Aristotle.

What kind of society treats its poor badly? I think reading Dickens' Oliver Twist, or Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man answers that question. 

What rot do we create by exalting wealth at any moral cost? [See below my initials. sch 1/3/23.] This seems the society envisaged by Ayn Rand. I recall Allen Greenspan favoring her philosophy. I say this is the society we have now.

sch

{What do we get by making wealth a virtue regardless of all moral teachings:

 

We have our own oligarchs - do we continue to let them rule? sch 1/3/23.]