Self-respect, megalopsychia, and moral education

Self-respect is widely and rightly considered an important value in moral education. There seems at first sight less agreement on what exactly constitutes self-respect. However, I show that once terminological differences have been set aside, there emerges a substantial concordance of opinion in philosophical circles on the specification of this concept. Unfortunately, this common specification is marred by two major shortcomings. I argue that both these shortcomings can be ameliorated through a synthesis of recent conceptions of self-respect and Aristotle's analysis of his much-neglected "crown of the virtues", megalopsychia. Finally, I suggest some practical implications of such a synthesis for moral education.