As Donald Trump has departed the world stage, one wonders about the man he is. Let’s look behind his Presidency, and use Aristotle’s 12 virtues to assess Trump, the person.
In his latest book How to be Good (Bloomsbury, London, 2020), Gary Cox, research fellow at The University of Birmingham (UK), states that there is much to be said for old-fashioned values like self-discipline, proper pride, dignity, and honour. Philosophers like him have long puzzled over Socrates’ original question, ‘Why be good?’ One answer is that while virtues make you happy, they are their own reward.
Aristotle, himself a student of Plato, established the Lyceum school and library in 335 BCE where he taught young nobles – wealthy men and women – including famously, Alexander the Great. For Aristotle (Nicomachean Ethics, 350 BCE), virtues are ‘purposeful dispositions’ that make you strong (Latin virtus) and help to foster an excellent ‘character’ (Greek ethos) leading to a happy, flourishing life.
While we possess certain these ‘purposeful dispositions’, Aristotle also reinforced that ‘practice makes perfect’. He highlighted that ‘we are what we repeatedly do; excellence then, is not an act, but a habit’. Aristotle further espoused that a virtue represented a golden mean between an excess and a deficiency, and suggested there were twelve such virtues (see Table 1):
| Too Little | The Virtue | Too Much |
| Cowardice/
Gutlessness |
Courage | Recklessness/
Rashness |
| Abstinence/
Dullness |
Temperance | Gluttony/
Licentiousness |
| Stinginess/
Meanness |
Liberality | Prodigality |
| Pettiness | Magnificence | Vulgarity |
| Selfishness/
Pusillanimity |
Magnanimity | Vanity/
Greed |
| Timidity | Proper ambition | Pride/
Egotism |
| Restlessness/
Lack of spirit |
Patience | Irascibility/
Irritability |
| Deceptiveness/
False modesty |
Truthfulness | Brutal honesty/
Boastfulness |
| Boorishness/
Coarseness |
Wittiness | Buffoonery/
Ridiculousness |
| Cantankerousness/
Tactlessness |
Friendliness | Flattery/
Obsequiousness |
| Shyness/
Prissiness |
Modesty | Shamelessness/
Crudeness |
| Malicious enjoyment | Righteous indignation | Rage/
Envy |
Table 1: Aristotle’s Table 1: Aristotle’s Twelve Virtues
After Aristotle, the twelve virtues can be described as follows:
Courage – To overcome fear and difficulties, act confidently, and not be either a coward or reckless.
Temperance – To demonstrate self-control and moderation in one’s habits, and not be either licentious or insensible. He was never dull.
Liberality – To be generous and benevolent towards others, and not be either mean or prodigal.
Magnificence – To display grand and praiseworthy actions, and not be either petty or vulgar.
Magnanimity – To show nobility of spirit and kindness towards others, and not be either vain or cruel.
Proper ambition – To strive for achievements with deserved honours, and not be either timid or overly self-seeking.
Patience – To be of good temper, and not be either irascible or indifferent.
Truthfulness – To state the facts about oneself and others, and not either understate the truth or be boastful.
Wittiness – To show a tactful sense of humour without offending or harming others and not be either a boor or a buffoon.
Friendliness – To be a good, a pleasant or a useful friend, without flattering others or being cantankerous towards them.
Modesty – To portray a degree of self-respect and humility, and not be either too shy or too shameless.
Righteous indignation – To give people what they deserve for slighting you, and not show either malicious enjoyment of others’ ill fortune, or envy of others’ successes.
Using this ethical taxonomy, one suggests that Donald Trump is a person who:
1. Was rash and reckless in inciting an insurrection (leading to an historic second impeachment), and is now even regarded as being cowardly and betraying the cause of the white supremacists such as ‘The Proud Boys’;
2. Lacked self-control in his relations with women and was arguably licentious in his affairs;
3. Was mean towards immigrants and foreigners and cruel towards people on death row;
4. Was both petty and vulgar in his habits;
5. Was vain in espousing that he was a ‘very stable genius’ and was cruel towards those who did not show unconditional loyalty towards him;
6. Was overly self-seeking and showed inappropriate ambition in wanting to obtain an illegal second term, and frequently displayed egotistical tendencies in his language and behaviour;
7. Was impatient if his needs were not met, and indifferent towards the 400 000 Americans who have already died of the pandemic;
8. Was boastful of his achievements, dishonest in ignoring the truth of the pandemic, promulgated lies (‘stop the steal’), and endorsed ‘alternate facts’;
9. Offended and harmed others (‘build that wall’), especially immigrants by putting their children in cages;
10. Was selectively generous towards his own family and his cronies, flattering towards dictators, and a useful friend until people no longer served his purposes;
11. Was shameless in what he said (‘lock her up’) and whom he supported;
12. Was malicious towards others and unreasonably indignant when he didn’t get his own way.
Aristotle proposed that a person can lack virtues in some areas of their life while still being virtuous in others in his theory of ‘disjoint spheres’ (Howard Curzer, Aristotle and the Virtues, Oxford University Press, 2012). However, it is a real challenge to find any of these twelve virtues as being evident in Trump from his behaviour over the last four tumultuous years. Of course, Trump wasn’t elected by loyal Republicans for his virtues.
Aristotle emphasised the importance of being a great and magnanimous soul. Employing Aristotle’s assessment, it is doubtful if Trump is one. We haven’t even considered other virtues such as: wisdom, knowledge, compassion, generosity, integrity, and decency.
The 16th American President, Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) said – ‘whatever you are, be a good one’. Whether the 45th American President was a good President, let alone a good man, depends upon your perspective, and will be debated for some time.
While playing golf at Mar-a-Lago Estate, maybe Trump might reflect upon his legacy and the benefits of being good, and he might consider the wisdom of pursuing a virtuous life. Miracles are still possible, even in this cynical age.
Greg is a part-time university lecturer, a civil funeral celebrant, and a children’s book author. He was a management consultant for forty years, specialising in leadership, strategy and organisational behaviour. His PhD challenged the view that human beings at work were merely ‘human resources’. He is married and lives on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland. He has published previous articles in Pearls and Irritations on leadership, religion, and grief.
Comments
12 responses to “Is Trump a virtuous person? Let’s ask Aristotle”
Greg,
A thoughtful analysis .
I , like Jim was looking at my own life of 70+ years as I read and pondered to see where I fitted in the scheme of things. I was brought up in the Irish Catholic tradition. There would be no doubt that Jesus of Nazareth upon whose preaching Christian concepts of ethics and morality are based , would have been exposed to Greek Philosophy as a Greek ‘colony’ existed not far from his ‘home town’ . I realize through ‘feedback’ from family and friends that I fail at times to live up to this expectation. That is being human.
Hi Gavin. Thank you for your comment on my article about Trump’s virtues – or lack of them! I too share a Catholic background (as an Aussie priest for 5 years) and from my Seminary training, I also suspect that ‘JC’ would have been exposed to such Greek ideas.
Excellent synopsis and set of comparisons.
Speaking of Aristotle, it was he that came up with the idea of a “magnanimous man”, just as it is placed within the category of virtues on your list above.
Ayn Rand who claimed to be a philosopher, only ever read Aristotle. As a Russian her experience of communism drove her to migrate to the US. She had a great influence on American popular thinking since the US has rarely supported communism or socialism; it was anathema to American views of entrepreneurship, democracy, and freedom.
Her concept of a ‘magnanimous man’ became an aberration of Aristotle’s views, and it in many ways could be seen to resemble the behaviour of someone like Trump.
Her principal premise was that surrendering one’s own interests to the interests of others, ie. altruism, was from her point of view comparable to evil. I think for a large section of corporate America, CEOs, and people like Trump, that rang a bell. Her views became very popular, but in many ways were aberrated even further. It gave rise to selfish and callous ways of behaviour and a level of arrogance associated with Trump-like people.
She has had quite an influence on the Republican Party, in particular Paul Ryan who served as the 54th speaker of the United States House of Representatives from October 2015 to January 2019. He was a follower of her views, admitted it was the reason he entered politics, and instructed his interns to read her books.
George, your comments about Ayn Rand and magnanimity remind me of something Donald’s niece Mary Trump said in her book, ‘Too Much and Never Enough’. She observed that neither Trump nor his father Fred (both sociopaths) would ever entertain the notion of giving to another, no matter who, or how needy, that person was. Benevolent, altruistic, or charitable giving, no matter how small the sum, means you have less than you had before, while somebody else has more; an intolerable outcome. It seems Donald’s sisters were of like mind, ganging up with Don and brother Robert (Mary’s father Freddy, the eldest child, had died aged 42, having achieved only fleeting but self-made success in his own terms and later being destroyed by father Fred) to ‘steal’ Freddy’s inheritance from Mary and her brother Fritz. While the rest of the family was outraged at this, the sheer greed and blatant selfishness of the Trumps remained astounding, but Donald stood at the apex of this meanness.
Donald was unsurpassably mean and prodigal at the same time, spending millions ‘loaned’ to him by his Father on a preposterous life-style while proving incompetent as a property developer. Ayn Rand’s ‘philosophy’, if stated as simply as you have done, would have appealed to both Donald and his father, but only as a comforting rationalisation; they needed no motive. In 1990 Donald, in deep financial straits, even tried unsuccessfully to pressure his father, aged 85 and on the brink of cognitive impairment, into signing a new will leaving him in full control of his estate. From Mary’s book (possibly jaundiced, but who cares) I could discern no virtues in Donald at all, just harbingers seen in retrospect of a horrible president who had been fully formed in character from the age of five.
Hi Andrew. Thank you for your response to George’s comment and your reflection a la Mary Trump. In her experience, it seems that Donald J. Trump has a natural predisposition towards egoism and narcissism, which has been exacerbated and reinforced by dysfunctional role-models in the Trump patriarchy. Sadly, for him, the USA, and the world, it is highly unlikely that he will ever be a ‘generous soul’.
Thanks Andrew
Only just getting back to this thread now.
Thanks for your comment and I agree about Mary Trump’s analyses. I think the fact that she is so well qualified, and her opinions are very similar to many other psychologists, is a strong validation of her work. Given the experience of her father as well appears to have taught her from a very young age to not become another Trump, in the form of Donald Trump’s father.
It’s also a much needed foray into the world of many highly rich, somewhat dynastic families that become disconnected from ordinary people and ordinary lives. Given Rupert Murdoch gave him a very high level of support, it is interesting to look at his family as well to see how he dominates through his patriarchy and it is causing a split in his own family as well. It is like there are a different set of social memes in such families compared to ordinary people because they don’t actually mix with them. Yet in the case of Donald he knows every trick in the book to manipulate the less educated and unsuspecting working classes that are easily attracted to him.
Hi George. Thank you for your thoughtful response. Your comment has prompted me to explore Ayn Rand. ‘Selfish’, ‘callous’, and ‘arrogant’ are apt adjectives for Trump and his ilk.
Thanks Greg.
I think it is good what you point out here in that secular ethics from Aristotle can be a very useful yardstick for measuring up the behaviour of people like Trump (and ourselves as well) concerning character and personality traits. It is so much needed in the world today that sometimes appears to function in a moral void. I studied PG Western philosophy some years ago and it brought me to valuing the works of the ancient Greeks, and many others. Whether Aristotle, Plato, or Socrates, they still have much to teach us. I think we are also still working on Socrates’ question: “what is the good life?”, and his statement: “the unexamined life is not worth living”.
Some years ago I examined Ayn Rand’s works and her interviews, but I came to the conclusion that her arguments were often quite confused and sometimes contradictory. She sat outside the usual realm of philosophers and evolved her own opinions that are often more dogmatic and independent of any peer reviewed criticism. They did however become very popular for many in the US. I think Frank Sinatra’s ‘I Did It My Way’ is very much in the Rand tradition.
As you may know, her thesis is mainly expressed through fictional books, the two most important are Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. Howard Roark and John Galt are the two protagonists respectively. Fountainhead also exists as a late 1940s film starring Gary Cooper, well worth watching. There are some noble sides to Roark as an independent architect who seeks freedom in terms of complete control over his work – the uncompromising artist- but other aspects of his personality are too obstinate to take seriously. He actually blows up his building in the end because he can’t stand anyone else having any input. Today we might call it terrorism. This reminds us of people much like Trump, in that it was only his view of the world that he can tolerate. Ironically, when friends ask him to design a house for them he asks them to tell him what they want.
Putting this together with Rand’s view that ‘ altruism is evil’ or that men serving others is bad, can be easily interpreted by some to mean utter selfishness is good. (Tell that to Coronavirus nurses and doctors at the front line). There exist several filmed interviews of her on Youtube and here is the link to the one where she discusses altruism: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgP7T5ZfZ04
I would not say everything she said was bad, just not thoroughly thought through, but it was often popularly reinterpreted in ways that would make Trump look the kind of person she was talking about, and it gave justification for such people to do what they do.
This is a very good synopsis of her work:
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ayn-rand/
In the first paragraph it says: “most of the serious philosophical work on Rand has appeared in non-academic, non-peer-reviewed journals, or in books, and the bibliography reflects this fact. We discuss the main reasons for her rejection by most professional philosophers in the first section.”
Anyway, I hope to see more of your work on P&I
Thanks again, George, for your generous and detailed reflection here. Rand’s ‘altruism is evil’ is perhaps reminiscent (or prescient) of Jensen and Meckling’s (1994) appalling economist philosophy of man [sic] in their REM model – that humans are basically resource evaluating maximizing critters. A view successfully challenged by Michael Pirson’s Humanistic Management model (2017) – which I highlighted in my PhD thesis. Selfishness versus other-ness. We haven’t learnt much in our evolution … Regards,
I totally agree
Timely. I’m now examining my own life via this listing of virtues – and that of Abbott, Morrison, Dutton at the same time. I think I’m doing fairly well in the comparison stakes – but it’s more for others to decide, I guess.
Hi Jim. Thank you for your comment. Good for you in making a personal comparison and that others might be better able to comment on ourselves (unless you regard yourself, of course, as a ‘very stable genius’!)