We explain what virtues are and how the main Greek philosophers defined them. Furthermore, the virtues according to Christianity and contemporary philosophy.
What are the virtues?
Virtues are moral dispositions aimed at acting in accordance with the good. Due to their habitual nature, they are considered qualities of will understood as a disposition or acquired capacity.
Ethics is the branch of philosophy that studies the virtues. Different philosophers, throughout the history of Western thought, worked on the idea of virtue. Thinkers such as Plato, Aristotle, Saint Thomas or, in contemporary philosophy, Alasdair MacIntyre, developed different theories of virtue.
As an object of study of ethics, Virtues are considered actions in the field of morality, that is, human practice.. Its relationship with the idea of good varies depending on what ideal project the same idea of good responds to, whether truth, justice, beauty or good in itself.
Key points
- Virtues are moral actions of the human being, which are acquired or learned through beliefs and culture.
- The idea of virtue is related to the excellence or perfection of people.
- A given virtue can be considered a good action for one society or an evil action for another society.
See also: Ethics
Etymology of the word “virtue”
The word “virtue” derives from Latin virtuswhich means power, strength or potentiality. This is because virtus contains the particle viswhich means “force” or “energy,” as well as a certain relationship with virwhich translates as “male” and is related to integrity and wholeness.
For its part, virtus It is usually considered the Latin equivalent of Greek earring (ἀρετή), crucial concept of Greek antiquity. Areté comes from the comparative of the adjective agathoswhich means good and has its root in agawhich means “the best.” The most common translation of the word earring It is “excellence.”
From this translation originates the idea that virtue, in the sense of earringis a moral or ethical excellence. The reading of Aristotle's work was what fostered this idea of earring.
The virtues in the Greek world
In the Greek world, virtues were related to the idea of earringwhich means “excellence or perfection of things or people.” Homer and Hesiod, traditional Greek poets, spoke of earring as an element linked to combat and military glory.
As time went by, excellence moved into other unrelated areas, such as combat. Thus, a citizen could own earring if he was an expert in his main activity. The sophists were also masters of earring of speech, as Plato shows in the Menon. This was because, in reality, excellence of any kind could appear in Homer's texts, whether it was the areté of a runner's feet or the areté of a son's exercise compared to his father's exercise.
Plato and Aristotle were the ones who delved deeper into the question of virtues. In the RepublicPlato maintained that there were three fundamental virtues: prudence, fortitude and temperance. For Aristotle, on the other hand, virtue was a state of the soul different from the passions and different from the faculties, which must be achieved through ethics, through moral practice.
Virtue according to Plato
Plato worked on the idea of virtue in different dialogues. Some of them are the Protagoraswhere the question is raised whether virtue is knowledge or not, the Menonwhich tries to explain what virtue is, and the Euthydemuswhich seeks to define ethical knowledge.
The most important of his dialogues, and perhaps the most famous in relation to virtue, is the Menon. Over there Plato asks what virtue is and whether or not it is teachable. When asking how political men receive virtue, he considers that there are two ways: knowledge and true opinion, which is something similar to a divine grace or gift. However, he considers that virtue is neither taught nor learned, but is an exclusive and non-transferable gift.
The non-transference of virtue, in Plato's case, occurs because no one can, by opinion, “give an account” of virtue. Only those who know the causes of things (philosophers) can explain the things themselves.. In this way, the only way to teach virtue would be to convert its character of gift or grace to a character of knowledge. In fact, that will later be the objective of Plato's Academy.
Virtue according to Aristotle
Aristotle was the first to systematically develop the question of virtues. In Ethics for Nicomachusdeveloped a fundamental theory of virtue, combining nature, habit and reason.
In his presentation, the philosopher distinguished between two classes of virtues, which respond to the idea of habit: moral virtue and intellectual virtue. This is because people worthy of admiration are not only the righteous but also the intelligent and wise people. In this way, the intellectual virtues are accompanied by reason, while the moral virtues are made to obey those dictated by reason.
- Intellectual or rational virtues. They result from the exercise of the intellectual faculties and are the set of primordial virtues that allow man to rise from the sensitive to the rational. They are: wisdom, intelligence and prudence.
- Moral or character virtues. They result from the exercise of the dominion of the intellective soul over the appetitive soul and perfect the character of the way of being and behaving. They are: courage, self-control, magnanimity, greatness of soul, meekness, truthfulness, courtesy, friendship and justice, among others.
Both the intellectual virtues and the moral virtues also respond to the idea of nature and the idea of purpose. For Aristotle, the virtue of any entity had a direct relationship with its nature.
The virtues in the Christian world
The Greek virtues, as understood by Plato and Aristotle, were incorporated into the Christian world with some changes. Thus, the virtues that appear in the Republicprudence, fortitude, temperance and justice, were added to a list drawn up by Saint Ambrose in which the theological virtues were found: faith, hope and charity.
Theological virtues have God as their object, since they come from divine grace. Christianity distinguishes between natural virtues and theological virtues. This is because at the center of New Testament religion is the concept of love for those who sin. This allowed charity to be included as one of the fundamental virtues, considered the most important of the theological virtues, since it appears in the practice of forgiveness, a central exercise of Christian ethics.
The virtues in contemporary philosophy
One of the contemporary philosophers who has worked the most on the question of virtues is Alasdair MacIntyre, a Scottish thinker born in 1929. He is mainly known for his works and contributions to moral philosophy, especially for his 1981 work, After virtuewhich recovers the Aristotelian conception of virtue.
MacIntyre offers three tentative definitions of virtue. These are:
- First: virtue as an acquired human quality whose possession and exercise allow us to achieve internal goods.
- Second: Virtue must be understood as a disposition that allows us to achieve these goods and, above all, enable the search for good.
- Third: virtue influences all areas of the individual's life, since it is necessary to distinguish, value and realize the goods internal to the practices that aim at human flourishing.
References
- Plato (2007). Menon. In Dialogues II (trans. J. Calonge Ruiz, E. Acosta Méndez, FJ Oliveri and JL Calvo). Barcelona: Gredos.
- Romero, FT (1998). Ethics and politics in Plato: the function of virtue (I). Spirit: notebooks of the Balmesiana Philosophical Institute, 47(118), 243-267.
- Castelló, SF (Ed.). (1993). Nicomachean Ethics (Vol. 9). University of Valencia.
- Camps, V. (Ed.). (1992). History of ethics. Criticism.
- MacIntyre, A. (1987). After virtue (p. 95). Barcelona: Criticism.
- Borisonik, H. (2011). Ergón and areté in the political philosophy of Aristotle. Problemata: International Journal of Philosophy, 2(2), 99-114.
