Virtue
The Greeks had a word, arete (ἀρετή), which meant “excellence”. All things possess an arete. For example, the arete of a knife is to cut things. Hence it has to be sharp. A blunt knife is still a knife, but it has no arete. It is not a good knife. Likewise, the arete of a light bulb is to be bright enough to cast light. A dim lightbulb is still a light bulb but not a good lightbulb because it has lost its arete. The Greek philosopher Aristotle identified man’s arete or excellence to be virtue. Being virtuous is excellence at being a human. But what does virtue entail?
The Greek philosopher Plato identified four classic virtues. They are courage, wisdom, temperance, and justice. Courage is the bravery to confront fear and intimidation. Wisdom or prudence is to decide which course of action is appropriate in certain circumstances. Temperance is moderation in behaviour and the self-control to avoid extremes and excesses of behaviour. Justice is fairness in dealing with others.
It is easy to say these words but difficult to identify what they really mean. What is courage, and how do you know that you are displaying it? Aristotle said that courage is the middle way between two extremes, cowardice and foolhardiness. It is not the middle point, but a point somewhere between the two extremes which changes from situation to situation and time to time. However, we instinctively know when courage is being displayed. Anybody who has watched the video of the unknown man stopping a line of tanks in Tiananmen Square in Beijing in 1989 readily identifies courage. Another example of courage was when my father tried to break up a fight between older boys when he was young. He was courageous because he did the right thing despite his fear.
Temperance or moderation is avoiding excesses which allow us to enjoy whatever we are doing as long as we do not do it too much. It also leaves us time to do other things. If you do things in excess, you will not enjoy them or look forward to them.
Prudence is where you control yourself by the use of reason rather than emotion. It comes from the Latin “prudentia” which means foresight or insight. One uses prudence to judge between virtuous and wicked actions, such as in why someone might lie, and also what is the appropriate response at a given time and place. Prudence is used to distinguish between actions which might be courageous or reckless. Prudence is based on goodwill which is without evil intent and will not cause trouble for others. Knowledge or wisdom used for evil intentions is cunning.
Justice means being fair to the other person who might even be unfair towards me. Take for example a situation where your friend, the team captain for basketball, always picks you last. You would not be just picking him last in order to get back at him if you were team captain. Being just is to pick him on merit and not revenge.
Everybody thinks they know the difference between virtues and vices. Wisdom and strength are praised while lying and theft are denounced. However, things are not that easy to label. Lying can be virtuous. In a situation where telling the truth could cause harm to some innocent people, a lie is the virtuous thing to say. Theft can also be virtuous. Taking something away from somebody without their permission and refusing to give it back would be the virtuous thing to do if you believed they were going to use some implement to inflict grievous harm on another person. Similarly, using strength to intimidate weaker people or knowledge to cause distress to others is not virtuous. Vitium non est in rebus sed in animo ipso – Vice is not in one’s actions but in the mind itself. In other words, it’s not what you do, but why you do it. Your actions should be judged by your intentions. Only then can one tell if you are being virtuous. This is where prudence is so important. Do you have an idea of what being virtuous means now?
