Virtues of the Soul: Reason and Habit

A freewheeling discussion in which our editors have a very TAC moment  discussing the connection of the music of the spheres and the virtues, and then set out to discuss Aristotle’s Virtue Ethics, but somehow talk more about Plato. Important topics are covered such as, how much virtue does it take to refrain from throwing a baby from an upper-story window? Is there any sense in which Bertrand Russell has virtue? All this, and so much more!

The editors had so much fun that the time slipped by without even getting to the supernatural virtues or the post-enlightenment revolt against virtue.

Bibliography

• Aristotle,  Nichomachean Ethics.
• Plato,
  • Phaedrus.
  • The Republic.
  • Meno.
• St. Thomas Aquinas,
  • Summa Theologiae,  Ia-IIæ, Q 49-89 (“Treatise on Habits”).
  • Summa Theologiae, IIa-IIæ, Q 47-122 (“Treatise on Prudence and Justice”).
  • Summa Theologiae,  IIa-IIæ, Q 123-170 (“Treatise on Fortitude and Temperance”).
• Duane Berquist, Lectures on Ethics.
• Edmund Waldstein, O.Cist., The Good, The Highest Good, and the Common Good, The Josias (2015).

If you have questions or comments, please send them to editors(at)thejosias.com. We’d love the feedback.

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