A Q U I C K , A N D Y E T S O M E H O W S T I L L E X H A U S T I N G , T O U R O F A T H O U S A N D Y E A R S

VIRTUE IN THEMIDDLE AGES

TWO WAYS OF APPROACHINGTHE MATERIAL

• One or two selected figures• The grand historical sweep

ORGANIZING QUESTIONS FOR THE GRAND TOUR

• 1. What is the role of virtue in each thinker’s ethics as a whole?• 2. How does each thinker arrive at a

characterization of particular virtues?• 3. What’s more important: human nature

or the human condition?• 4. Does psychological analysis play a

crucial role?• 5. How are knowledge, love, and virtue

related?

ORGANIZING QUESTIONS FOR THEGRAND TOUR

• 6. What is the connection between virtue and happiness?• 7. What is will?• 8. How trainable are the appetites?• 9. What about the unity of the virtues?

ONE THOUGHT PER THINKER

• Augustine: The pagan idea of virtue is pride and delusion.• Anselm : It’s all about obedience.• Peter Abelard : Intentions are all that

matters.• Thomas Aquinas: Virtue perfects human

nature.• John Duns Scotus : It’s all about the will.• William Ockham : The language of virtue

falls apart.

AUGUSTINE (354-430)THE PAGAN IDEA OF VIRTUE IS PRIDE

AND DELUSION

“You’ve heard of Plato, Aristotle, Socrates? Morons.”

AUGUSTINE (354-430)THE PAGAN IDEA OF VIRTUE IS PRIDE

AND DELUSION

• Human responsibility for sin: the concept of will• The damage to human nature• The anti-Pelagian polemic• What the Pelagians said• Augustine’s retort

• The problems of ignorance and difficulty

AUGUSTINE (354-430)THE PAGAN IDEA OF VIRTUE IS PRIDE

AND DELUSION

• Implications for standard philosophical doctrine• Against the inseparability of the virtues• Against the Stoic theory of emotions• Against the philosophers’ conception of

virtue• Against the Grand End Theory

• The fate of the cardinal virtues

ANSELM (1033-1109)IT’S ALL ABOUT OBEDIENCE

“As you wish.”

ANSELM (1033-1109)IT’S ALL ABOUT OBEDIENCE

• Anselm never approaches ethics as an independent area of inquiry.• Our purpose• Our place• Two definitions of rectitude of will (which

come to the same thing)• Justice is rectitude of will preserved for its

own sake.

WHAT IS JUSTICE INANSELM’S ACCOUNT?

• It’s a disposition, but not an Aristotelian hexis: it is neither acquired by human effort nor strengthened by habituation.• In this life our possession of justice is

always precarious.• Hence, the moral life requires exceptional

vigilance, and every disobedience, however apparently trivial, is a grave evil.• Notice how unlike an Aristotelian virtue this

is.

FURTHER INDICATIONS THAT THE ROLE OF VIRTUE IS LIMITED AT BEST

• The traditional vocabulary of the cardinal virtues other than justice is almost completely absent.• Anselm doesn’t appear to envision the

possibility of training the emotions.• And anyway, preserving rectitude of will is

what’s important – and obedience is always possible, no matter what the state of one’s emotions might be.• And what about charity?

PETER ABELARD (1079-1142)INTENTIONS ARE ALL THAT MATTERS

• Start with the analysis of cases• The tempted monk• The servant who kills his master• The man who marries his sister• The two hangmen

PETER ABELARD (1079-1142)INTENTIONS ARE ALL THAT MATTERS

• The key terms• Disposition of the mind• Will• Consent• Act

• So what about virtue?

THOMAS AQUINAS (1225-1274)VIRTUE PERFECTS HUMAN NATURE

• From natural law to virtue• The standing analogy between speculative and

practical reasoning

Speculative reason

Practical reason

Starts from First principles Natural law

Proceeds by way of

Theoretical syllogism

Practical syllogism

Until it reaches A conclusion An act

FROM NATURAL LAW TO VIRTUE (CTD)

• The first precept of the natural law is that good is to be done and evil avoided.• The most general precepts of the natural law are

more substantive principles that point out specific goods to be pursued.• Aquinas identifies these goods by appealing to a

general metaphysical theory of goodness and a philosophical anthropology.• These goods are arranged hierarchically and

inclusively.• Aquinas posits appetites corresponding to each

level of good.

AND SO WE ARRIVE AT VIRTUE

• Virtues are dispositions by which we achieve our specific good effectively.• We need them because our specific good

is rational activity, and our appetites alone do not suffice for fully rational choice.• Sensory appetite needs virtue in order to

follow reason.• Intellectual appetite needs virtue in order

to be directed toward the common good.• Reason needs virtue in order to judge well.

THUS THE FOURCARDINAL VIRTUES

• There are two virtues perfecting the sensory appetite:• Temperance (temperantia) perfects the

concupiscible appetite• Fortitude (fortitudo) perfects the irascible

appetite.• Justice (iustitia) perfects the intellectual

appetite (will).• Practical wisdom (prudentia) perfects

reason.

ANALYZING PARTICULAR VIRTUES

• We’ll take temperance as our example, just because I have a handy chart.• The basic rule of temperance: natural law

at work• The psychological complexity of

temperance

THE LINCHPIN:PRACTICAL WISDOM

• In deliberate action• We apprehend the end• We deliberate about how that end can be

achieved here and now• We judge what is to be done• We command the external bodily

members to do it• Practical wisdom in the broadest sense is

the virtue by which we deliberate well, judge well, and command well.

THE LINCHPIN:PRACTICAL WISDOM

• There are corresponding vices in each case• Foolish haste or “precipitation” is a failure in

deliberation: you don’t stop and think.• Thoughtless is a failure in the act of judgment:

you can’t be bothered to pay attention to the relevant considerations.• Inconstancy is a failure in the act of command:

you don’t follow through.• Since moral defects cause these defects in

practical reason, practical wisdom is impossible without moral virtue.

NATURAL & SUPERNATURAL GOODS(OR, HOW AQUINAS OUT-BOOK-TENS BOOK TEN)

• The specifically human activity that constitutes our good is not theoretical but practical reason.• The life of practical reason – the life of the

activity of the moral virtues – is “proportionate to human beings.”• The life of theoretical reason is in an important

sense superhuman.• But as a Christian Aquinas believes that God

intends human beings for a life that surpasses their nature.

NATURAL & SUPERNATURAL GOODS(OR, HOW AQUINAS OUT-BOOK-TENS BOOK TEN)

• But note: grace does not destroy nature; it brings nature to fulfillment. (Gratia non tollit naturam sed perficit.)• Heaven fulfills our nature, though in a way

beyond nature’s power; and our supernatural life begins not with death but with baptism.• We need virtues that dispose us toward that

supernatural happiness: faith, hope, charity.• These virtues have a parallel structure to the

moral virtues.

JOHN DUNS SCOTUS (1265/66-1308)IT’S ALL ABOUT THE WILL

• All virtues of character are in the will.• Possession of a virtue is neither necessary

nor sufficient for right action.• The virtues are not necessarily connected;

they are partial perfections.

WILLIAM OCKHAM (C. 1287-1347)THE LANGUAGE OF VIRTUE FALLS APART

• Ockham agrees with Scotus that• Virtues exist only in the will.• The virtues are not necessarily connected.• The intellect’s judgment never determines

the will.• No innate inclination or acquired habit in the

will – not even a virtue – causally determines the will’s actions.

• But he’s more radical than Scotus in his view of the neutrality of the will.

WILLIAM OCKHAM (C. 1287-1347)THE LANGUAGE OF VIRTUE FALLS APART

• The most characteristic feature of Ockham’s discussion of the virtues is that he uses the language of virtue and vice to talk about particular actions rather than dispositions.• This tendency aligns Ockham with the

approach that is commonly said to be characteristic of modern moral philosophy.

ORGANIZING QUESTIONS FOR THE GRAND TOUR

• 1. What is the role of virtue in each thinker’s ethics as a whole?• 2. How does each thinker arrive at a

characterization of particular virtues?• 3. What’s more important: human nature

or the human condition?• 4. Does psychological analysis play a

crucial role?• 5. How are knowledge, love, and virtue

related?

ORGANIZING QUESTIONS FOR THEGRAND TOUR

• 6. What is the connection between virtue and happiness?• 7. What is will?• 8. How trainable are the appetites?• 9. What about the unity of the virtues?