Posted on 12/27/2016 6:50:24 AM PST by VitacoreVision
On the natural level, prudence, and on the supernatural charity, deserve plugs as well—but I’m glad to see someone taking up the cudgels with the Spartans, Stoics, and Englishmen. Virtue is a complex topic.
I was not terribly suprised to see Lewis quoted in the post after yours.
Well, it appears that there is some debate concerning the foundation of all the other virtues.
Cicero and Saint Augustine, eh?
Pretty big names.
I’ll stick with courage as the foundation.
Most people think that courage is only physical courage. They think that courage is defined by charging the machine gun or rushing into the burning building to save someone.
Courage is also telling the boss in a meeting that his idea won’t work.
Courage is not buying the vodka after you didn’t get the promotion.
Courage is “to thy self be true”.
Gratitude and humility are certainly important, but I think you have to have courage to have those virtues. As a matter of fact, I don’t see how you could possibly have those virtues without first having courage.
Thank you for your input.
It caused me to examine my thoughts on this matter, and that is always a good thing.
College kids are products of OUR generation, not their own
Aristotle and Aquinas most prominently, and many others in addition, note that you can’t actually have one virtue without having all of the others. One may have personal inclinations and talents, but they aren’t developed as virtues without the other virtures being developed proportionately. Without knowing whether and how something ought to be done (requiring justice and prudence), an irascible appetite, be it strong our weak, is rather at sea.
Excellent - thanks for posting...
bkmk
Destroy MEANINGFUL Education and replace it with liberal indoctrination.
At the same time, destroy American Energy and Manufacturing industries.
Regulate and tax other business out of business.
The result is 95 million Americans out of the workforce, and no entry level access for the ill-equipped.
There you have multiple generations dependent on gov’t handouts and no sense of shame.
The "Greatest Generation" largely grew up in agrarian communities where even the children had to work in order for the family to do well.
WW2 moved many of these families into urban areas because of the jobs and manufacturing created in our war effort. We lived in the suburbs and children had no real chores other than homework and making one's bed. These were the spoiled, indulged, bored brats we saw throwing feces at soldiers returning from Vietnam.
It's gone downhill ever since.
My goodness.
The deep thinkers are out in force today.
Good.
Your post deserves some time spent in contemplation.
Thank you, also.
Truth Bump!
“Foundation” conveys the idea of “coming first”.
It denotes a thing that must be before other things can be.
While it is interesting to examine the sequencing of virtues, I think the important point is to examine how we can grow virtues in people.
Our world is a very computerized world now. Things happen so fast in computers that to us, they appear to happen at the same time.
But they don’t. There is a sequence.
I spent the summers of my youth on a dry land grain farm. I saw the organic process of growing things. I saw that sequence play out over months, not milliseconds.
You can’t harvest unless you plant first.
For us organics, humans, I think that courage must be present before the other virtues may blossom.
If we are to harvest virtue(s), I believe we must first plant courage.
If one wants to look at sequencing, which you make a reasonable case for, off hand, I’d suggest Temperance/Self-Control.
I’d do so on the grounds that the gifts of the Holy Spirit are traditionally sequenced Fear-Piety-Knowledge-Fortitude-Counsel-Understanding-Wisdom (the Fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom), and that Fear is traditionally associated with the Cardinal Virtue of Temperance. Piety is associated with Justice.
One cannot begin to tackle difficult things well unless one has some self-control and some idea of what is just. Without these, one ends up looking like Sampson.
In view of the previous mention of humility, which is in many ways foundational, I ought to note that Temperance, as a Cardinal Virtue, includes humility, which is technically, if one digs deeply enough, an accurate and proper love of self (which includes a realization of one’s proper relationship to God).
Now you are really going deep.
I am not a Pastor nor a Bible scholar.
I used to enjoy analyzing the Bible.
I liked looking for patterns and evidence.
Then, I realized that I was studying Christ and not trying to be like Christ.
I had to have the courage to step out in faith.
So, though educated and experienced, I had to start again from the beginning.
It is my experience that courage is the foundation for all the other virtues.
You obviously are experienced and educated.
If you try to grow humility or temperance in a cowardly person, I believe that you will be unsuccessful.
Encourage courage.
Moral courage. Spiritual courage. Intellectual courage.
Then, “As the night follows the day”, the other virtues can grow.
Indeed, for are "judgmental" themselves.
you have to also blame their parents, teachers and society as a whole
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