The Aspects of Virtue
The Aspects of Virtue In Western Philosophy, we have the 4 Cardinal Virtues: Prudence, Justice, Temperance, and Fortitude. You find this in Christianity, and in Stoicism, old and modern. I never really got how this made any sense at all. What is the principle behind this? There seems to be none at all. What makes them 'cardinal'? Supposedly that they are necessary to practice all other virtue or morality. But what the hell does Justice have to do with that? Temperance and Fortitude seem to just be the same thing - self-control - so why note the same thing twice? I looked deeper into them, though, and reformulated them, into what I now call the Aspects of Virtue . Credit goes to John Vervaeke for inspiring these thoughts, but they are ultimately my own. Overview I have come to believe that these things are not virtues. These 4 things explain how virtue exists, or manifests into activity. Were they meta-virtues , or the virtues of having virtues, then they would be able to exp...