Virtue

Virtue (Latin virtus; Greek ἀρετή) is moral excellence of a man or a woman. A virtue is a character trait valued as being good. The conceptual opposite of virtue is vice.

The Greek word ἀρετή has not come into ordinary English. The English word virtue is derived from the Latin word virtus which is in turn from vir meaning "man" in the masculine sense. The word virtus means "the male function" conceived in terms of strength or force; hence "the power to accomplish". [The unrelated Latin wordvis means simply "power" or "violence"; ancient grammarians were unable to distinguish the two words.].

Due to ancient social norms and these linguistic subtleties, virtus was sometimes identified with the masculine warlike virtues such as courage. This has sometimes led to a sense of irony concerning the supposed etymology.In English the word virtue is often used to refer to a woman's chastity. As the philosopher Leo Strauss expresses it, "The mystery of Western thought is how a term that originally meant the manliness of a man came to mean the chastity of a woman."

Virtue can also be meant in another way. Virtue can either have normative or moral value; i.e. the virtue of a knife is to cut, the virtue of an excellent knife is to cut well (this is its normative value) vs. the virtues of reason, prudence, chastity, etc. (which have moral value).

In the Greek it is more properly called ἠθικὴ ἀρετή (ēthikē aretē). It is "habitual excellence". It is something practiced at all times. The virtue of perseverance is needed for all and any virtue since it is a habit of character and must be used continuously in order for any person to maintain oneself in virtue.

The four classic Western "cardinal" virtues are:

• temperance : σωφροσύνη (sōphrosynē)
• prudence : φρόνησις (phronēsis)
• courage : ἀνδρεία (andreia)
• justice : δικαιοσύνη (dikaiosynē)

Prudence and Virtue Seneca, the Roman Stoic said that perfect prudence is indistinguishable from perfect virtue. His point was that if you take the longest view, and consider all the consequences, in the end, a perfectly prudent person would act in the same way as a perfectly virtuous person. Many people have found it valuable to determine how each of the virtues is prudent, as well as how they harmonize. Virtue (translated as "te" 德) is also an important concept in Chinese philosophies such as Confucianism and Taoism. Chinese virtues include humanity, xiao usually translated as filial piety, zhong meaning loyalty. One important normative value in much of Chinese thinking is that one's social status should be the result of the amount of virtue that one could demonstrate rather than by one's birth. In the Analects, Confucius stated that perfect virtue consists of the global practice of five things: gravity, generosity of soul, sincerity, earnestness, and kindness.
"For this very reason make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue (arete) and virtue (arete) with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control (temperance) and self-control with steadfastness, etc." New Testament, II Peter 1.5-7.