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Virtue

Virtue is from the Latin virtus, the equivalent of the Greek arete (ἆρετή). In general, virtue is excellence. As applied to humans, a virtue is a good character trait. The Latin word virtus literally means "manliness," from vir, "man" in the masculine sense; and referred originally to masculine, warlike virtues such as courage. In one of the many ironies of etymology, in English the word virtue is often used to refer to a women's chastity.

Table of contents
1 The four virtues
2 Virtue in the Western philosophical tradition
3 The unity of the virtues
4 Prudence and virtue
5 The Christian virtues
6 Virtue and vice
7 Virtue in Chinese philosophy
8 Related entries

The four virtues

The four classic Western "cardinal" virtues are:

Virtue in the Western philosophical tradition

The list of Western virtues goes back at least as far as Plato, in The Republic. A more comprehensive set of virtues is found in Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics. The notion of virtue was a commonplace in ancient philosophy, and because of its adoption by Cicero, was widely accepted by Christian philosophers and became a staple of Catholic theology.

The unity of the virtues

Classically, some philosophers, most notably Aristotle, said that in order to pursue any of these virtues perfectly, one would have to master them all. For example, in order to be just, one must be wise. The thesis of the unity of the virtues is controversial. One might argue that humans can be courageous without being wise, or good tempered without being just.

Prudence and virtue

Seneca, the Roman Stoic said that perfect prudence is indistinguishable from perfect virtue. His point was that if you take the longest view, and consider all the consequences, in the end, a perfectly prudent person would act in the same way as a perfectly virtuous person. Many people have found it valuable to determine how each of the virtues is prudent, as well as how they harmonize.

The Christian virtues

In Christianity, the theological virtues are conventionally faith, hope and charity, a list which comes from 1 Corinthians 13:13. These have particular conventional meanings that are said to perfect one's love of God and Man. It is claimed that these also harmonize and partake of prudence, given the peculiarities of Christian theology.

Virtue and vice

The opposite of a virtue is a vice. One way of organizing the vices is as the corruption of the virtues. Thus the cardinal vices would be folly, venality, cowardice and lust. The Christian theological vices would be blasphemy, despair, and hatred.

However, as Aristotle noted, the virtues can have several opposites. Virtues can be considered the mean between two extremes. For instance, both cowardice and rashness are opposites of courage; contrary to prudence are both over-caution and insufficient caution. A more "modern" virtue, tolerance, can be considered the mean between the two extremes of narrow-mindedness on the one hand and soft-headedness 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.

Virtue in Chinese philosophy

Virtue (translated as "de") is also an important concept in Chinese philosophies particularly Confucianism. Chinese virtues include humanity, xiao usually translated as filial piety, and zhong meaning loyalty. One important normative value in much of Chinese thinking is that one's social status should be the result of the amount of virtue that one could demonstrate rather than by one's birth.

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