CARDINAL VIRTUES

There is a clear difference between a student who reaches the right answer in geometry only falteringly and with much difficulty after a great deal of time and another student skilled in geometry who reaches the conclusion surely, with ease and pleasure. Both have the ability to reach the true conclusion, but the second student has something in him that the first does not. This student has a stable disposition inclining him to reason with ease, pleasure, and sureness in the area of geometry.

Similarly, there is a difference between someone who makes the right choice, but falteringly and with difficulty, on the one hand, and a person who chooses well because he has a disposition to choose well. The person with a disposition to choose well, that is, in line with love of God and neighbor, will not only make the right choices more frequently, but he or she is more attentive to the real goods at stake, more alive to the problems and opportunities, in his or her situations. That disposition to choose well is moral virtue.

A human being is complex. A human being is composed of body and soul, and has various capacities or powers: He or she has cognitive powers (capacities to know) and appetitive powers (capacities to desire or will). Thus, the human being has sense powers and intellect, and bodily appetites (capacities to have emotions, for example, to feel inclined toward or repelled by an object), and the will (the power to will or choose). Although choosing is itself an act of the will, we choose what we have judged to be good in some way (an intellectual act); we choose things we have some bodily desires or feelings about (emotions); and we carry out our choice with or by our other powers.

Because of this complexity, the different aspects of us, our different powers, can be disposed to act together well or badly. For example, our sense appetites or capacities to have emotions may have a disposition to go their own way, independently of our judgment of what is truly good. Or one’s will may be disposed to love oneself to the exclusion of the rights of other people. Such dispositions are vices; whereas the dispositions in our various powers to act well are the moral virtues.

Basis of a Virtuous Life • The cardinal virtues are the four that form the basis of a virtuous life. The term comes from the Latin word for hinges (cardines). They are: prudence, justice, temperance, and courage.
Prudence is a disposition to discern the morally good option. While synderesis is the virtue for discerning ends worth pursuing, by prudence we discern the morally right means. Everyone knows the basic moral principles, at least vaguely, on one level. For example, one knows that one should pursue and protect life, health, knowledge, and community, that one should not act against these goods, and that one should not be deterred from acting for them by mere fear of discomfort. Still, it may not be clear what choices to make here and now with respect to diet and exercise, or what school to attend, or what career to pursue, or what and how much entertainment to engage in, and so on.

Prudence, then, is the practical wisdom needed to apply general principles to such concrete situations. Like the other cardinal virtues, it comes with repeated good choices. That is, prudence is the intellectual aspect of a character built or shaped by good choices.
Justice is the disposition to will to others what is their due. We have a closer emotional attachment to ourselves and our families and others toward whom we feel affection (sometimes, as with personalities on television, persons we don’t actually know) than to those outside these circles. Such affections can lead us to choose in discord with love for God and neighbor. That is, they can lead us to neglect or thwart the basic goods of other people. The disposition to choose in accord with respect for what is genuinely good in all persons, despite promptings toward partiality, is the virtue of justice. Justice also includes a disposition to do one’s part in contributing to the common good of the various communities one participates in: the Church, political community, family, voluntary associations.

Justice toward God is the virtue of religion. As creatures, we are participants of the largest community of all, the universe. Thus, one’s will is correctly disposed – is just – only if it is in line with what God wills, both to himself and to his creation. So, we should cooperate with God and bring our wills into harmony with his. This virtue, then, will involve acknowledging and rejoicing in God’s own intrinsic goodness, and actively cooperating with his wise plan and will for creation.

Temperance is a disposition to direct and sometimes curb our desires for pleasure. Our desire for food, drink, comfort, and sex can lead us away from choices in line with love of every aspect of human good, and God’s plan.
Finally, emotional aversion in regard to pain and evil can sometimes unreasonably deter us from pursuing good. The disposition for directing and controlling our fear is courage, sometimes also called fortitude.
The virtues are really the different aspects of a morally good character. The Letter to the Ephesians says: “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Eph 1:10). Since we are called to fashion (or mold), with God’s grace, an upright character, in order to make of our very selves a gift to give back to the Father, virtues are not mere means to some extrinsic work or social project; they are in themselves worthy of serious attention.

See: Freedom, Human; Human Virtues; Synderesis; Theological Virtues.
Suggested Readings: CCC 1804-1811. G. Grisez, The Way of the Lord Jesus, Vol. 1, Christian Moral Principles, pp. 58-59. J. Pieper, The Four Cardinal Virtues.

Patrick Lee




Russell Shaw. Our Sunday Visitor's Encyclopedia of Catholic Doctrine. Copyright © 1997, Our Sunday Visitor.

For any inquiries or comment, you may contact the WEBMASTER
Last Updated: Sunday, April 01, 2001 03:24:19 PM