Stanley H. Rosen, 1929-2014

 … is there available in our ordinary experience an icon of what Socrates means by the “vision” or “prophecy” of the good? I believe that there is—the good man. A good man, as we observe him within our daily lives, is not “useful for…” in the same sense that tools, food, acts, even just and beautiful things exhibit utility. Entirely apart from the happiness which may justly accrue to the good man because of his consciousness that he is good, there is a certain fulfillment, completion or perfection which shines forth from such a man, and which we too admire, even perhaps without envy or desire, because of its splendor.

-Stanley Rosen, Nihilism: A Philosophical Essay, Yale University Press, 1969, p.172