Your mission, should you choose not to f*** it up:
Using ANY list of virtues [giving source(s) if you know it/them]…
In order to give a good alternative to Aristotle’s advice to choose the lesser of two evils, or to veer toward the opposite vice in order to correct a vice…
List the virtues according to a hierarchy on a horizontal number line. For example, life at the top, honesty at the bottom - or just order them however YOU, your mom, your culture, some stats you found, some philosophical argument would whatever.
Then apply it to a conflict that shapes virtue or vice in individual(s) or group(s). Identify which virtues are in play for each possible resolution of the conflict. Based on choosing the greater virtue, what is the virtuous choice?
(To correct a vice, veer towards its opposing virtue. Gonna need a parallel number line for the vices.)
Winner gets a million virtue dollars.
Go.
[P.s. If you want someone to blame for this, don’t blame me. 100% Dr. Turner’s fault. Plus Norm Geisler (where I learned graded absolutism). Already mentioned Aristotle. You do the math.]
(That isn’t to say the virtues can’t be turned into rules/laws. It’s weird how virtue theories are represented as emphasizing character over conduct, whereas Aristotle does not. However… consider the “fruits of the Spirit”… against such things there is no law. The Golden Rule is descriptive of God, prescriptive for all others. Jesus did not come to abolish but fulfill…on the cross…we love because we are loved.)
(See also C.S. Lewis on the transcultural Tao at the end of Abolition of Man.)
(Final thought… I agree with MLK, Jr & Augustine … or was it Aquinas … that an unjust law is no law at all. So even a lawful order can by extension be unlawful. Obligated to disobey any law, rule, command, or order in violation of the Golden Rule.)
So, I turned Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics (Golden Mean) into a Graded Absolute Virtue scale. This is just the very rough first draft—it is not ordered from least to greatest. It shows that the virtuous person chooses to cultivate their inborn image of God (Logos), which is a mean between psychopathy (too much mind) and sociopathy (too much body). The Goldilocks Zone is the perfect blend of both (dialectic). Once cemented in character, it is second nature. In a moral conflict you would choose the greater good between conflicting virtues, and you wouldn’t use Aristotle‘s golden mean to choose a lesser evil, or correct a vice by aiming towards its opposing vice - you would stay focused on virtue, and only use vice to know “where you are” and what to avoid. Some of this stuff is definitely influenced by Dr. Turner. First learned about graded absolutism from Norm Geisler, but it’s definitely in Aristotle.
I didn’t… never heard of it, until now. My thoughts are my own not someone else’s, but obviously of a universal shared/shareable sentiment, to those that morally ‘get it’.
The only reason I get anything is God let me learn the hard way. Still stuff I don’t get. For example… I just now realized or learned today what the word spite means. My husband had been saying it for 20 years and I never understood what he meant by it and I never thought to ask him what he meant because I had my own understanding and assumed that he shared it. Studying Aristotle has shown me it meant something completely different than what I had assumed. I’m not saying I would still be married today if I had known what it meant, but it did come as quite a shock. As to your previous question, yes there needs to be contractual agreements so we don’t step on each other’s toes & everyone knows what is expected of them. And I think we should expect more from our citizens than just being born into the same location. Don’t get me started - I have a lot of other ideas.
You remind me of someone(s) :’-( I have fallen in that way two times in my life. I keep hearing that if I do it again I’m toast and I go back to jail and all this other crap. I am a fool. All I can say is I’m sorry and all I can do is stay anchored beyond the veil.
CS Lewis was not a pacifist. Niether was Dietrich Bon Hoffer. (sp?) Sometimes you gotta turn over some tables and sweep out the temple. Sometimes it’s Armageddon. The biggest question is - have you prayed about it?
Second nature (virtue/vice/character) is one part imagination, one part reason/desire for the supersensible Good… or on a spectrum between those parts.
Jk.
is the perfect blend of both (dialectic). Once cemented in character, it is second nature. In a moral conflict you would choose the greater good between conflicting virtues, and you wouldn’t use Aristotle‘s golden mean to choose a lesser evil, or correct a vice by aiming towards its opposing vice - you would stay focused on virtue, and only use vice to know “where you are” and what to avoid. Some of this stuff is definitely influenced by Dr. Turner. First learned about graded absolutism from Norm Geisler, but it’s definitely in Aristotle.
