The Case for Greatness: Honorable Ambition and Its CriticsYale University Press, 2008 M01 28 - 288 pages A searching defense of great political leadershipThe Case for Greatness is a spirited look at political ambition, good and bad, with particular attention to honorable ambition. Robert Faulkner contends that too many modern accounts of leadership slight such things as determination to excel, good judgment, justice, and a sense of honor—the very qualities that distinguish the truly great. And here he offers an attempt to recover “a reasonable understanding of excellence,” that which distinguishes a Franklin D. Roosevelt and a Lincoln from lesser leaders. Faulkner finds the most telling diagnoses in antiquity and examines closely Aristotle’s great-souled man, two accounts of the spectacular and dubious Athenian politician Alcibiades, and the life of the imperial conqueror Cyrus the Great. There results a complex and compelling picture of greatness and its problems. Faulkner dissects military and imperial ambition, the art of leadership, and, in the later example of George Washington, ambition in the service of popular self-government. He also addresses modern indictments of even the best forms of political greatness, whether in the critical thinking of Hobbes, the idealism of Kant, the relativism and brutalism of Nietzsche, or the egalitarianism of Rawls and Arendt. He shows how modern philosophy came to doubt and indeed disdain even the best forms of ambition. This book is a nuanced defense of admirable ambition and the honor-seeking life, as well as an irresistible invitation to apply these terms to our own times and leaders. |
Contents
1 | |
16 | |
The Problem of Thucydides Alcibiades | 58 |
Alcibiades CrossExamined by Socrates | 81 |
Xenophons Cyrus the Great | 127 |
Washington and Modern Theories of Fame | 177 |
Other editions - View all
The Case for Greatness: Honorable Ambition and Its Critics Robert K. Faulkner No preview available - 2007 |
Common terms and phrases
Abradatas actions Adair admirable advantage Alcibi Alcibiades Alcmaeon ancient Arendt argument Aristotle Aristotle's army Astyages Athenian Athens Bacon Cambyses cibiades citizens claims courage Croesus Cyaxares Cyrus Cyrus’s deeds defend democracy democratic desire despite disdain divine doubt duty Education Education of Cyrus empire enemies enlightened equal especially Ethics evil fame free politics friends Gadatas glory Gobryas gods grand ambition great-souled Hobbes human imperial justice Kant least Leo Strauss less liberal love of honor Machiavelli magnanimity man’s Marshall Medea ment modern nature Nevertheless Nicomachean Ethics Nietzsche nobility noble oligarchic one’s oneself opinion Panthea passion Persian philosophic Plato Plutarch praise pride prince priority Protagoras rational Rawls reason regime republic republican respect rule rulers second Alcibiades second dialogue seeks seems sense shows Socrates soul Spartan subordinate superiority things thought Thucydides Tigranes tion tradition true turn tyranny University Press victory wants Washington wish worth Xenophon Zeus