virtue

Etymology

The ancient Romans used the Latin word virtus (derived from vir, their word for man) to refer to all of the "excellent qualities of men, including physical strength, valorous conduct, and moral rectitude". The French words vertu and virtu came from this Latin root. The word virtue "was borrowed into English in the 13th century".

History

Ancient Egypt

Maat (or Ma'at) was the ancient Egyptian goddess of truth, balance, order, law, morality, and justice. The word maat was also used to refer to these concepts. Maat was also portrayed as regulating the stars, seasons, and the actions of both mortals and the deities. The deities set the order of the universe from chaos at the moment of creation. Her (ideological) counterpart was Isfet, who symbolized chaos, lies, and injustice.

Platonic virtue

The four classic cardinal virtues are:

Prudence (φρόνησις, phrónēsis; Latin: prudentia; also Wisdom, Sophia, sapientia), the ability to discern the appropriate course of action to be taken in a given situation at the appropriate time.

Fortitude (ἀνδρεία, andreía; Latin: fortitudo): also termed courage, forbearance, strength, endurance, and the ability to confront fear, uncertainty, and intimidation.

Temperance (σωφροσύνη, sōphrosýnē; Latin: temperantia): also known as restraint, the practice of self-control, abstention, discretion, and moderation tempering the appetition. Plato considered sōphrosynē, which may also be translated as sound-mindedness, to be the most important virtue.

Justice (δικαιοσύνη, dikaiosýnē; Latin: iustitia): also considered as fairness; the Greek word also having the meaning of righteousness.

This enumeration is traced to Greek philosophy and was listed by Plato who also added piety (ὁσιότης, hosiotēs) and replaced prudence with wisdom. Some scholars consider either of the above four virtue combinations as mutually reducible and therefore not cardinal.

It is unclear whether Plato subscribed to a unified view of virtues. In Protagoras and Meno he states that the separate virtues cannot exist independently and offers as evidence the contradictions of acting with wisdom, yet in an unjust way; or acting with bravery (fortitude), yet without wisdom. The narrative in the Meno commences with the eponymous character asking about virtue, but when Socrates asks him "What is virtue?", he replies with a list of virtues displayed in different ways.

In his Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle defined a virtue as a point between a deficiency and an excess of a trait. The point of greatest virtue lies not in the exact middle, but at a golden mean sometimes closer to one extreme than the other. This golden mean obtains at a desirable middle between excess and deficiency. For Aristotle, the desirableness of the trait at the golden mean—that which makes it a virtue—consists in its disposition to be "chosen under the proper guidance of reason". That is, in its disposition to foster human flourishing, a state defined with respect to human nature conceived teleologically, or as an end to be realized instead of a descriptive fact to be understood.

Ancient India

While religious scriptures generally consider dharma or aṟam (the Tamil term for virtue) as a divine virtue, Valluvar describes it as a way of life rather than any spiritual observance, a way of harmonious living that leads to universal happiness. For this reason, Valluvar keeps aṟam as the cornerstone throughout the writing of the Kural literature. Valluvar considered justice as a facet or product of aṟam. While many before his time opined that justice cannot be defined and that it was a divine mystery, Valluvar suggested that a divine origin is not required to define the concept of justice. In the words of V. R. Nedunchezhiyan, justice according to Valluvar "dwells in the minds of those who have knowledge of the standard of right and wrong; so too deceit dwells in the minds which breed fraud".

Chivalric virtues in medieval Europe

In the 8th century CE, upon the occasion of his coronation as Holy Roman Emperor, Charlemagne published a list of knightly virtues:

Love God

Love your neighbor

Give alms to the poor

Entertain strangers

Visit the sick

Be merciful to prisoners

Do ill to no man, nor consent unto such

Forgive as ye hope to be forgiven

Redeem the captive

Help the oppressed

Defend the cause of the widow and orphan

Render righteous judgement

Do not consent to any wrong

Persevere not in wrath

Shun excess in eating and drinking

Be humble and kind

Serve your liege lord faithfully

Do not steal

Do not perjure yourself, nor let others do so

Envy, hatred, and violence separate men from the Kingdom of God

Defend the Church and promote her cause.

Religious traditions

Abrahamic religions

The Baháʼí teachings speak of a "Greater Covenant", being universal and endless, and a "Lesser Covenant" specific to each religion. Baháʼís view Baháʼu'lláh's revelation as a binding lesser covenant for his followers. In the Baháʼí writings being firm in the covenant is considered a virtue.

In Christianity, the three theological virtues are faith, hope, and love, a list which comes from verse 13 of 1 Corinthians 13 (νυνὶ δὲ μένει πίστις pistis (faith), ἐλπίς elpis (hope), ἀγάπη agape (love), τὰ τρία ταῦτα· μείζων δὲ τούτων ἡ ἀγάπη). The same chapter describes love as the greatest of the three, and further defines love as "patient... kind... not envious, or boastful, or arrogant, or rude" (the Christian virtue of love is sometimes called charity and at other times a Greek word agape is used to contrast the love of God and the love of humankind from other types of love such as friendship or physical affection).

Christian scholars frequently add the four classic cardinal virtues (prudence, justice, temperance, and courage) to the theological virtues to give the seven heavenly virtues; for example, these seven are the ones described in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, sections 1803–1829. In Christian tradition courage or fortitude is a gift of the Holy Spirit.

In 410 CE, Aurelius Prudentius Clemens listed seven "heavenly virtues" in his book Psychomachia (Battle of Souls) which is an allegorical story of conflict between vices and virtues. Among the virtues were fides (faith), pudicitia (chastity), paciencia (endurance), mens humilis (humility), spes (hope), sobrietas (sobriety), ratio (reason), operatio (devotion), pax (peace), concordia (harmony), and sapientia (wisdom).

The medieval and renaissance periods saw a number of models of sin, listing the seven deadly sins and the seven capital virtues opposed to each.

In Islam, the Quran is believed to be the literal word of God, and the definitive description of virtue, and Muhammad is considered an ideal example of virtue in human form. The foundation of Islamic understanding of virtue was the understanding and interpretation of the Quran and the practices of Muhammad. Virtue is seen in the context of active submission to God performed by the community in unison.

Eastern religions

Buddhist practice as outlined in the Noble Eightfold Path can be regarded as a progressive list of virtues.

Right View – realizing the Four Noble Truths (samyag-vyāyāma, sammā-vāyāma).

Right Mindfulness – mental ability to see things for what they are with clear consciousness (samyak-smṛti, sammā-sati).

Right Concentration – wholesome one-pointedness of mind (samyak-samādhi, sammā-samādhi).

Buddhism's four brahmavihara ("Divine States") can be more properly regarded as virtues in the European sense. They are:

Mettā/Maitrī: loving-kindness towards all; the hope that a person will be well; loving kindness is the wish that all sentient beings, without any exception, be happy.

Karuṇā: compassion; the hope that a person's sufferings will diminish; compassion is the wish for all sentient beings to be free from suffering.

Muditā: altruistic joy in the accomplishments of a person, oneself or other; sympathetic joy is the wholesome attitude of rejoicing in the happiness and virtues of all sentient beings.

Upekkhā/Upekṣā: equanimity, or learning to accept both loss and gain, praise and blame, success and failure with detachment, equally, for oneself and for others. Equanimity means not to distinguish between friend, enemy or stranger, but to regard every sentient being as equal. It is a clear-minded tranquil state of mind—not being overpowered by delusions, mental dullness, or agitation.

There are also the Pāramitās ("perfections"), which are the culmination of having acquired certain virtues. In Theravada Buddhism's canonical Buddhavaṃsa there are Ten Perfections (dasa pāramiyo). In Mahayana Buddhism, the Lotus Sutra (Saddharmapundarika), there are Six Perfections; while in the Ten Stages (Dasabhumika) Sutra, four more Paramitas are listed.

Modern philosophers' views

René Descartes

For the Rationalist philosopher René Descartes, virtue consists in the correct reasoning that should guide our actions. Men should seek the sovereign good that Descartes, following Zeno, identifies with virtue, as this produces a solid blessedness or pleasure. For Epicurus the sovereign good was pleasure, and Descartes says that in fact this is not in contradiction with Zeno's teaching, because virtue produces a spiritual pleasure, that is better than bodily pleasure. Regarding Aristotle's opinion that happiness depends on the goods of fortune, Descartes does not deny that these goods contribute to happiness, but remarks that they are in great proportion outside one's own control, whereas one's mind is under one's complete control.

Friedrich Nietzsche

For Friedrich Nietzsche, the virtues of the strong are seen as vices by the weak and slavish, thus Nietzsche's virtue ethics is based on his distinction between master morality and slave morality. Nietzsche promotes the virtues of those he calls "higher men", people like Goethe and Beethoven. The virtues he praises in them are their creative powers ("the men of great creativity, the really great men according to my understanding"). According to Nietzsche these higher types are solitary, pursue a "unifying project", revere themselves and are healthy and life-affirming. Because mixing with the herd makes one base, the higher type "strives instinctively for a citadel and a secrecy where he is saved from the crowd, the many, the great majority…". The "Higher type" also "instinctively seeks heavy responsibilities" in the form of an "organizing idea" for their life, which drives them to artistic and creative work and gives them psychological health and strength. The fact that the higher types are "healthy" for Nietzsche does not refer to physical health as much as a psychological resilience and fortitude. Finally, someone of the "Higher type" affirms life because he is willing to accept the eternal return of his life and affirm this forever and unconditionally.

In the last section of Beyond Good and Evil, Nietzsche outlines his thoughts on the noble virtues and places solitude as one of the highest virtues:

And to keep control over your four virtues: courage, insight, sympathy, solitude. Because solitude is a virtue for us, since it is a sublime inclination and impulse to cleanliness which shows that contact between people ("society") inevitably makes things unclean. Somewhere, sometime, every community makes people – "base".

Nietzsche also sees truthfulness as a virtue:

Genuine honesty, assuming that this is our virtue and we cannot get rid of it, we free spirits – well then, we will want to work on it with all the love and malice at our disposal and not get tired of 'perfecting' ourselves in our virtue, the only one we have left: may its glory come to rest like a gilded, blue evening glow of mockery over this aging culture and its dull and dismal seriousness!

Benjamin Franklin

These are the virtues that Benjamin Franklin used to develop what he called "moral perfection". He had a checklist in a notebook to measure each day how he lived up to his virtues.

They became known through Benjamin Franklin's autobiography.

Temperance: Eat not to Dullness. Drink not to Elevation.

Silence: Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself. Avoid trifling Conversation.

Order: Let all your Things have their Places. Let each Part of your Business have its Time.

Resolution: Resolve to perform what you ought. Perform without fail what you resolve.

Frugality: Make no Expense but to do good to others or yourself; i.e. Waste nothing.

Industry: Lose no Time. Be always employed in something useful. Cut off all unnecessary Actions.

Sincerity: Use no hurtful Deceit. Think innocently and justly; and, if you speak, speak accordingly.

Justice: Wrong none, by doing Injuries or omitting the Benefits that are your Duty.

Moderation: Avoid Extremes. Forbear resenting Injuries so much as you think they deserve.

Cleanliness: Tolerate no Uncleanness in Body, Clothes or Habitation.

Tranquility: Be not disturbed at Trifles, or at Accidents common or unavoidable.

Contemporary views

Virtues as emotions

Marc Jackson in his book Emotion and Psyche identifies the virtues as what he calls the good emotions: "The first group consisting of love, kindness, joy, faith, awe and pity is good." These virtues differ from older accounts of the virtues because they are not character traits expressed by action, but emotions that are to be felt and developed by feeling not acting.

Immanuel Kant, in his Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and Sublime, predicts and replies to Marc Johnson's view of emotions as virtues. To be goodhearted, benevolent, and sympathetic is not true virtue, for one acts merely episodically, motivated by appeasing those naturally limited feelings, such as in the presence, for example, of a needy person in the street: in such a case, we do not act for a universal motive but simply as a response to end a particular, individual, personal distress arisen in us by our own sentiments.

In modern psychology

Christopher Peterson and Martin Seligman, two leading researchers in positive psychology, recognizing the deficiency inherent in psychology's tendency to focus on dysfunction rather than on what makes a healthy and stable personality, set out to develop a list of "Character Strengths and Virtues". After three years of study, 24 traits (classified into six broad areas of virtue) were identified, having "a surprising amount of similarity across cultures and strongly indicat[ing] a historical and cross-cultural convergence". These six categories of virtue are courage, justice, humanity, temperance, transcendence, and wisdom. Some psychologists suggest that these virtues are adequately grouped into fewer categories; for example, the same 24 traits have been grouped into simply: Cognitive Strengths, Temperance Strengths, and Social Strengths.

Vice as opposite

The opposite of a virtue is a vice. Vice is a habitual, repeated practice of wrongdoing. One way of organizing the vices is as the corruption of the virtues.

As Aristotle noted, however, the virtues can have several opposites. Virtues can be considered the mean between two extremes, as the Latin maxim dictates in medio stat virtus—in the centre lies virtue. For instance, both cowardice and rashness are opposites of courage; contrary to prudence are both over-caution and insufficient caution; the opposites of pride (a virtue) are undue humility and excessive vanity. A more "modern" virtue, tolerance, can be considered the mean between the two extremes of narrow-mindedness on the one hand and over-acceptance on the other. Vices can therefore be identified as the opposites of virtues—but with the caveat that each virtue could have many different opposites, all distinct from each other.