Flattery is a compliant, usually insincere praise of someone with the goal of gaining his favor , a fawning.
Content
In the literature
Historically, flattery acted as a standard form of discourse when referring to monarchs . Already in the Renaissance, this was the usual practice of writers in order to flatter the ruling monarchs. Examples include Edmund Spencer , who praised Queen Elizabeth I in The Fairy Queen , William Shakespeare , flattering King James I in Macbeth , or Niccolo Machiavelli’s praise for Lorenzo II Medici in The Sovereign .
In general, flattery is a negative action. For example, the Bible condemns flatterers, and Jesus , speaking bluntly, without flattery, is set as an example.
| The serpent seduced me and I ateGenesis 3:13 |
| But everyone is tempted, carried away and seduced by their own lust. Conceived lust begets sinJacob 1: 14-15 |
In “The Divine Comedy, ” Dante Alighieri places flatterers in the 2 moat of the 8th circle of Hell , where they are stuck in excrement . This is explained by the fact that flattery spoken from their lips during life is like feces.
In classic literary works, flattery is often one of the fundamental traits of character characters. Such examples are Grima Gniloust from the novels of The Lord of the Rings series by John R. R. Tolkien , Goneril and Regan in the play King Lear or Iago in William Shakespeare's Othello .
In Philosophy
Historians and philosophers have paid attention to flattery as a problem in the field of ethics and politics . The ancient Greek philosopher Plutarch wrote an essay "How to distinguish a flatterer from a friend." In " Praise of Stupidity, " Erasmus of Rotterdam spoke positively of flattery - in his opinion, she "encourages the fallen, amuses the sad, raises the relaxed, wakes the numb, sick, heals the ferocious, loving brings them together, and brings them closer together, holding them together. She encourages the youths to master the sciences, amuses the elders; under the guise of praise and without offense exhorts and teaches the sovereigns. In general, thanks to her, everyone becomes nicer and nicer to himself, and yet this is the highest happiness ” [1] .
See also
- Hypocrisy
- Self-interest
- Pickup
- Narcissism
- Love bombardment
- Surface charm
Notes
- ↑ Erasmus of Rotterdam. Praise of Stupidity = Moriae Encomium, sive Stultitiae Laus. - M: State publishing house of fiction, 1960.
Literature
- Flattery // Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language : in 4 volumes / auth. V.I. Dahl . - 2nd ed. - SPb. : Printing house of M.O. Wolf , 1880-1882.