Note 20 — Chapter VII · “VIRTUE” AND “VICE” AS FUNCTIONS OF THE ORGANISM

Plato’s list is very brief, and his virtues correspond to the three parts of the soul as he conceived it. Self-control, courage, and wisdom are the three virtues which characterize the desire, the will, and the reason respectively, while the supreme virtue is a harmony or health of the soul.

For Aristotle, virtue is found in a moderation between extremes. For example, the virtue of courage is a mean between cowardliness and rashness. Others of his virtues likewise derived are: temperance, liberality, high-mindedness, mildness, friendliness, candor, urbanity, and justice.

The Christian virtues, while never stated in systematic form, are typically represented by humility, kindliness, self-denial, meekness, patience, temperance, and, perhaps, other-worldliness.

Comparatively few ethical writers attempt to give a list or scale of virtues and vices, and some of them ignore the question completely. Martineau, in a somewhat successful attempt to free himself from an irreconcilable dualism in ethics, presents a scale of traits beginning, presumably, with vices (e. g., censoriousness, vindictiveness, suspiciousness), and ending with virtues (compassion, reverence, and veracity). In the application of this system, the chief question is, not what is bad or what is good, but simply, which trait is better and which worse than another.