In the Republic, Socrates proposes to his interlocutors that in order to understand the principle of justice in the soul, they should look for the principle of justice in a city. If they grasp the principle of justice in the city, then that principle can be understood in the soul. My proposal is to reverse that Platonic process. If we first discern the elements that render an individual great, we may then discover analogous elements underpin cultural greatness. Dietrich von Hildebrand’s moral philosophy and his categories of importance are useful for understanding what makes a person great.
In his Ethics, Hildebrand proposes three categories of importance. These categories of importance can motivate our will and engender our affections. The first category is the subjectively satisfying. Ice cream is important in this sense. The mere fact that I find the taste of ice cream enjoyable means that it is capable of motivating my will to acquire ice cream.
The second category of importance is the important-in-itself, which Hildebrand often calls value. A genuine act of forgiveness between two friends confers no immediate benefit to me, but I am aware of its intrinsic value. I understand that this act “is something that ought to be” (Hildebrand, Ethics, 37). Values are objects which present themselves as worthy of existence. For Hildebrand, there are many kinds of values, intellectual, aesthetic, and moral (Hildebrand, Ethics, 136).
Hildebrand designates the third category as “the objective good for the person” (Hildebrand, Ethics, 52). Several objects fall between the important-in-itself and the subjectively satisfying. Health presents itself to me as something which would immediately be a real benefit for me. It presents itself as an objective good for me.
These three categories of importance may complement or oppose one another. A cool glass of water on a hot day can present itself to me as subjectively satisfying and as an objective good for me. Likewise, exercise can be good for me but not subjectively satisfying. An act of forgiveness, if directed to me or performed by me, presents itself as important-in-itself and as something which is good for me.
Furthermore, values call for persons to make a proper response; they place demands upon a person’s inner life and external actions. In the virtuous man, we will find both a keen awareness of the world of values and proper responses to those values. Hildebrand says, “Virtues blossom only out of the conscious union of man with the world of values.” For Hildebrand, the person who fully gives himself to value is transformed to be like the values, and most properly lives as fully human. He says, “To be irradiated and affected by values, to affirm and to be joyous and enthusiastic over them, above all to love them, is to be wed to the world of values: thereby we become transformed and the fullness of personal values blossom in us” (Hildebrand, Liturgy and Personality, 45).
In a similar manner, if a culture is to be great, then it must properly respond and give itself to the world of values. The foundation of a culture must be reverence for value. A mark of a flourishing culture will be one that responds deeply to values. A culture which merely pursues the subjectively satisfying will surely fall prey to the weaknesses common to humanity. Culture, however, cannot completely ignore the other categories of importance. Nevertheless, one must be keenly aware that these categories do not guarantee a great culture. A degree of prosperity, in the form of economic success and peace, is often necessary for the unfolding of genius. A great culture must not fall prey to seeking lower levels of importance over values. If a culture seeks the health and wellness of its members, it will certainly raise itself higher than a society subsumed by its own lusts. G. K. Chesterton sees the Carthaginian worship of Moloch as an economic practice which demands the sacrifice of infants (Chesterton, The Everlasting Man, 175). Such a culture has not seen the infinite value of the human person, the unique image of God found at the core of mankind. Likewise, something would be missing if a culture never sought satisfaction. What would culture be without the shared mirth of holy days and feasts? Values do not require us to cast aside Christmas. Holidays provide a shining example of how value response can intertwine with the subjectively satisfying.
A culture which properly responds to values will allow for the flourishing of intellectual, artistic, and moral genius. It will regard with reverence the importance of these gifts and give the genius fertile ground to grow. More importantly, it must prioritize the cultivation of supreme values, moral values. From moral values flow heroes. In moral goodness, we find persons greater than Achilles, namely the saints. The hallmark of any great civilization is the moral heroes it produces. Saint Francis and Saint Thérèse of Lisieux are the glory of Italy and France, yet they are not merely Italian or French. They belong to a greater culture than Italy or France. They are citizens not from this world, but from another, the Kingdom of Heaven. The Kingdom of Heaven is the greatest of all because it most fully abandons itself to the ground of all values—God. The church gives him his due response, worship, and glory. The further a culture strays from the divine light, the more it becomes darkened by its own passions. For the lowest kingdoms invert the hierarchy of importance. Subjective satisfaction, chosen over value, cramps the cultural genius. You shall know a tree by its fruits. You can judge a culture by the great things it achieves and, most importantly, by the moral heroes it produces.
Works Cited
Hildebrand, Dietrich von. Ethics. Steubenville, OH: Hildebrand Press, Dietrich Von Hildebrand Legacy Project, 2020.
Hildebrand, Dietrich von. Liturgy and Personality. Steubenville, OH: Hildebrand Press, Dietrich Von Hildebrand Legacy Project, 2016.
Chesterton, Gilbert Keith. The Everlasting Man. United Kingdom: Dodd, Mead, 1925.
