This enumeration is traced to Greek philosophy and was listed by Plato in addition to piety: ??????? (hosiotes).
It is likely that Plato believed that virtue was, in fact, a single thing, and that this enumeration was created by others in order to better define virtue. In Protagoras and Meno, he states that the separate virtues can’t exist independently and offers as evidence the contradictions of acting with wisdom (prudence), yet in an unjust way, or acting with bravery (fortitude), yet without knowing this(prudence).
Aristotelian virtue[edit source | editbeta].
In his work Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle defined a virtue as a point between a deficiency and an excess of a trait. [1] The point of greatest virtue lies not in the exact middle, but at a golden mean sometimes closer to one extreme than the other. However, the virtuous action is not simply the “mean” (mathematically speaking) between two opposite extremes. As Aristotle says in the Nicomachean Ethics: “at the right times, about the right things, towards the right people, for the right end, and in the right way, is the intermediate and best condition, and this is proper to virtue.
“[2] This is not simply splitting the difference between two extremes. For example, generosity is a virtue that fits between the two extrema of miserliness and being profligate. Generosity the perfect between the two errors; it is hitting right on the target. Further examples include: courage as the golden mean between cowardice and foolhardiness and confidence the golden mean between self-deprecation and vanity. To find the golden mean requires common-sense smarts, not necessarily high intelligence.
The Essay on Social Virtues Golden Rule
Social Virtues What is being Social, and what virtues do you need to possess to become sociable Throughout your life you are going to being interacting, and communicating with just about everyone who is living around you and working with you. In my paper I am going to be talking about some of the major virtues you will need to acquire to become a ethically wise and social person according to the ...
In Aristotle’s sense, virtue is excellence at being human, a skill that helps a person survive, thrive, form meaningful relationships, and find happiness. Learning virtue is usually difficult at first, but becomes easier with practice over time until it becomes a habit. Prudence and virtue[edit source | editbeta] Seneca, the Roman Stoic, said that perfect prudence is indistinguishable from perfect virtue. Thus, in considering all consequences, a prudent person would act in the same way as a virtuous person.
[citation needed] The same rationale was expressed by Plato in Meno, when he wrote that people only act in ways that they perceive will bring them maximum good. It is the lack of wisdom that results in the making of a bad choice instead of a prudent one. In this way, wisdom is the central part of virtue. Plato realized that because virtue was synonymous with wisdom it could be taught, a possibility he had earlier discounted. He then added “correct belief” as an alternative to knowledge, proposing that knowledge is merely correct belief that has been thought through and “tethered”.
