ABSTRACT
The highest virtue is a gift-giving virtue, says Nietzsche. With this statement he evokes the generosity and vitality that belong to the morality of strength. The gift-giving virtue poses a challenge to the calculating, utilitarian measurement of gift exchange, suggesting instead the excess and over-abundance characteristic of the Nietzschean goal for future humanity, the Ubermensch. But while Nietzsche's goals and values are oriented towards the future and anticipate postmodern motifs, they have ancient Greek sources. Nietzsche's gift-giving virtue harks back to Aristotelian generosity, and the Ubermensch calls to mind the Aristotelian idea of "greatness of soul," megalop.fYchia.
