Cardinal virtues come from a time-honored and deep tradition, but most people don’t even know what they are
That’s why we at Lifedaily decided to enlighten you today with a full explanation of the Cardinal virtues and try and make them relevant for you.
So let’s start with the basics. There are four Cardinal virtues, they are:
- Prudence
- Justice
- Temperance
- Courage
These virtues are recognized in the writings of Classical Antiquity and are a large part of Christian tradition.
Let us take a closer look at each virtue in more detail in our efforts to understand them better.
Prudence
The first of the four virtues is prudence, which is also referred to as wisdom, and is really the “ability to judge between actions with regard to appropriate actions at a given time”, as noted in Wikipedia.
Justice
It goes without saying for most right-minded people in the modern world that justice and fairness are vital pillars of any civilized society. Allowing people equal individual rights is surely a virtuous thing to do in anyone’s book.
Temperance
Temperance is an increasingly rare virtue these days due to the modern age of technology and the unprecedented sharing of information. Restraint is sadly not a word in the dictionary of most youngsters these days.
Courage
The last, but by no means least, Cardinal virtue is courage, a noble trait among men of all cultures. Other words which spring to mind are fortitude, forbearance, strength, and endurance; courage is “the ability to confront fear, uncertainty, and intimidation.”
So what has happened to these four Cardinal virtues in our modern culture?
In order to highlight the point, to get historical for just a sec, let’s look at what the big philosophers said about the Cardinal virtues.
Aristotle said about them in his famous rhetoric:
The forms of Virtue are justice, courage, temperance, magnificence, magnanimity, liberality, gentleness, prudence, wisdom
Although the Roman philosopher and statesman Cicero, like Plato, limits the list to four virtues:
Virtue may be defined as a habit of mind (animi) in harmony with reason and the order of nature. It has four parts: wisdom (prudentiam), justice, courage, temperance
There are of course many debates and discussions about the precise meaning of the Cardinal virtues throughout the ages but what do they mean to us today?
There is no doubt that if people were more prudent in their day-to-day lives, the world would be a much happier place.
The same goes for justice, especially if you look at the rich/poor divide nationally and globally. Not to mention the archaic laws around the world which oftentimes see criminals get off the hook.
Temperance and self restraint are noble virtues indeed but have quite a different connotation in this day and age. These days most modern thinkers see temperance as the ugly step-sister of repression, a virtue frowned upon by many people.
We are sure you will agree with us that the Cardinal virtues are good in their basis and that the world would be a better place if society lived and abided by them.
We’d love to hear your thoughts on the matter in the comments feed provided below.
