What is Virtue? What determains what is Virtue? Can Virtue be taught? Can it be barinwashed onto you? Is it a realitve thing? Is it set by an auhtority or God? Just some stuff for you to think about.
Virtue, hmmmm. Patience, kindness...the best definition I could give alone for a virtue would be that it is a quality of someone's character which benefits a "greater good". Heres the official: vir·tue (vûr'chū) pronunciation n. 1. 1. Moral excellence and righteousness; goodness. 2. An example or kind of moral excellence: the virtue of patience. 2. Chastity, especially in a woman. 3. A particularly efficacious, good, or beneficial quality; advantage: a plan with the virtue of being practical. 4. Effective force or power: believed in the virtue of prayer. 5. virtues Christianity. The fifth of the nine orders of angels in medieval angelology. 6. Obsolete. Manly courage; valor. On whether a virtue can be taught or brainwashed...the best example I could use is kindness. I have often wondered about the source of my own kindness. I have done kind things for others with no consideration of what benefits I could derive from the act. Having a tendency to disregard what is "morally right" in a situation in favour of what I feel is right, I have been hard pressed to find any logical reason for kindness without reward. To cut a long story short, the solution to the problem is that my kindness comes from my empathy, or my tendency to regard the problems of others as my own. Going on, we could well ask the questions, "Is empathy a virtue?" and "Is empathy a natural human expression, or must it be taught?". Well, obviously, a number of human beings obviously lack the 'virtue' of empathy...therefore should we regard it as a taught thing? Or has their desire to seek their own rewards overridden their natural tendency towards empathy? Could empathy simply be a matter of one's own preference for a) justice or b) self satisfaction/preservation? I'm not going to try and answer these questions tonight, i'm tired and rambling, hopefully this sets someone off on a path.
are you saying virtue is empathy? or are you saying is empathy a virtue? I'm looking to define virtue itself. When talking about this with people I notice how they name virtues rather than virtue itself. Also virtue can be contardicting itself. For example Payceince(sp) is a virtue but so is acting quickly.
I never said virtue is empathy, i was using it as an example. I'm not a single celled amoeba. Virtue has to be expressed in some way or another, hence empathy may be one of them, there is no such thing as flat out virtue, if there is could you describe it for me?
Hmm. Virtue? Perhaps that is subjective. Is there any objective state not unique to an individual and a situation?
Yeah, i think its a dead question, sorry. Virtue is just a loose term for certain moral strengths. You can argue "what are virtues?" But not "what is virtue?", but then thats just my opinion and maybe i'm not thinking it through. dd is smart, he can shed light i suppose.
