Virtues and Vices:

"We didn't think about the rights and wrongs; it was just the human thing to do."

            Pastor Theis, on the willingness of the people of Le Chambon to rescue Jews during WWII

 

A virtue is a trait of character ormind that predisposes one to do what is right or good. It may be seen as havingthree elements:

1.   Intellectualcomponent: correct moral beliefs and judgment

2.   Affective component: adisposition to feel good when one acts in accordance with the virtue and tofeel guilty or badly if one acts inconsistently with the virtue

3.   Motivationalcomponent: a disposition to act in a certain morally right way.

Example: the virtue of honesty

1.   Intellectual component: an honest person makes correct judgments and has the right beliefs about when it is appropriate to tell the truth (or exhibit some other form of honesty), how much of the truth it is appropriate to tell, and to whom it is appropriate to tell it.

2.   Affective component: an honest person feels good about herself when she is honest and feels guilty or badly in some way when she is dishonest or less than fully honest.

3.   Motivational component: an honest person is disposed to tell the truth and avoid telling lies, out of respect for telling the truth rather than some other motive. To be disposed to tell the truth implies that one will tell the truth unless there is some good reason not to, or unless something prevents one from doing so.

Virtues and vices are often divided into these categories:

1.   The intellectual virtues

¤      Judgment

¤      Intellectualhonesty

¤      Insight

¤      Awareness

¤      Having a propermoral universe

2.   The moral virtues

¤      Benevolence

¤      Courage

¤      Fairness

¤      Honesty

¤      Loyalty

¤      Temperance

¤      Empathy& Compassion

¤      Tolerance

¤      Autonomy

¤      Respect forself and others

 Another way to divide them is into basic or cardinal virtues/vices and derived virtues/vices. There have been several such attempts (the 7 Deadly Sins is one). Here are some:

¤      Theancient Greek cardinal virtues: wisdom, courage, temperance, & justice

¤      TheChristian cardinal virtues (according to St. Thomas Aquinas): faith, hope,love, prudence, fortitude, temperance & justice

¤      Frankena'slist: justice and benevolence

The idea in each case is that all other virtues are somehowcases of or composed of the cardinal virtues.

 

 Two kinds of virtues/vices:

A prima facie virtue/vice is a character trait that tends to produce right/wrong action in people who possess it.

A situational virtue/vice is a character trait that in fact in a particular situation produces right/wrong  actions in the person who possesses it. A situational virtue/vice may be an instance of a prima facie vice or a prima facie virtue. (A prima facie vice like hatred may lead in a particular case to wrongful actions. A prima facie virtue like honesty may lead in a particular case to wrongful action.)

Prima facie virtues/vices are not always situational virtues/vices because a virtue/vice is not always the only motivating factor in one's actions.

Two Kinds of Virtues

Prima facie virtues: character traits that typically produce right acts; that will produce right acts unless counteracted by something (a stronger vice or an outside influence e.g.)

Situational virtues: character traits that produce or help to produce right actions in a particular situation, even though they are prima facie neutral traits (such as intelligence) or prima facie vices.

Two Kinds of Vices

Prima facie vices: character traits that tend to produce evil whenever they are present & that will produce evil unless counteracted in some way

▶Hatred is a prima facie vice because it tends to produce violence toward those one hates and violence is prima facie wrong.

Hatred will produce violence and thus wrongdoing unless

i. The violence is counteracted by one’s conscience or some other "brake."

ii. The violence is justified and thus not wrong

Situational vices: character traits that produce or help to produce wrong actions in particular situation, even though they are prima facie neutral traits or prima facie virtues.

Example: Love would be a situational vice in a situation where it prevented a mother from turning her serial killer son into the police.

i. Love is a prima facie virtue

ii. But in this case it leads her to do the wrong thing.

 

So; a prima facie virtue may sometimes be a situational vice

and a prima facie vice may sometimes be a situational virtue

A prima facie virtue may be a situational vice because

  • There is an excess of the virtue
  • There is a deficiency of the virtue
  • The virtue is used in pursuit of bad ends (would you call this a case of having an excess of the virtue?)

One may have a prima facie virtue and in a given situation that virtue may be:

            A situational vice

            A situational virtue

            Situationally neutral

One may have a prima facie vice and in a given situation that vice may be:

A situational vice

A situational virtue

Situationally neutral

One may have a neutral character trait and in a given situation that trait may be:

A situational vice

A situational virtue

Situationally neutral

    A prima facie vice is like one of several people pushing a stalled car. Each of them is giving the car some impetus to move, though none of them may be able to move the car by himself. A prima facie vice gives you a push towards doing evil though it may not be sufficient by itself to cause  you to do evil. A prima facie virtue in this example would be anything that tended to prevent the car from moving, like its parking brake being on, or someone pushing in the other direction. Virtues and vices push against each other. Sometimes a vice or virtue may be sufficient all by itself to cause one to do good or evil, though they are not usually this dominant. So vices and virtues come in degrees of strength. In order to become a good person, then, it may be enough to just weaken one's vices and strengthen one's virtues; one may not need to eliminate the vices altogether.

A virtue:

                pushes one toward doing the right thing

                applies brakes against doing the wrong thing

 

A vice:

            pushes one toward doing the wrong thing

            applies brakes against doing the right thing

How does a prima facie virtue become a situational vice?

 

I.             EXCESS AND DEFICIENCY

Aristotle: through misjudgment and misapplication. One misjudges the appropriate amount or virtue in a situation and is either too little virtuous or too much so.

Example: the doctor who stole medical supplies and drugs from an abandoned pharmacy after Hurricane Katrina in order to tend to sick and injured people. IMHO, he correctly judged that his normal level of honesty (presuming that ne would not ordinarily steal from pharmacies) would be inappropriate in this situation and that being less honest than usual would be the right thing to do. Had he held to his normal standard of honesty and refused to take the medical supplies, one could accuse him of the situational vice of being excessively honest.

(Had he also helped himself to liquor and money from the till, he would have exhibited the situational vice of being not honest enough.) 

 

II. using them for the WRONG ENDS. There are some virtues that we can call “Instrumental” virtues the virtue of which depends almost entirely on what they are used to achieve. Dedication, determination, loyalty, competence, intelligence, discipline. . . all seem to be virtues when used for good ends, but vices when used for bad ends. The courage shown by the 9/11 terrorists was a vice because they used it for murderous ends. Intelligence used for criminal ends is a vice, not a virtue. 

 

Three kinds of prima facie vices:

Insufficiency is  the inadequate development of some capacity required for acceptable moral conduct. The lack may be cognitive, emotional, or volitional.

Expediency: is the disposition to  pursue one's own goals without regard for the evil that may result to others from that pursuit

Malevolence  is ill will, actively wishing harm to others, a disposition to act contrary to what is good for others

A more detailed list of vices:

I. Insufficiency

deficient critical reasoning skills
lack of or insufficiently strong moral identity or conscience

II. Expediency
  • Greed, gluttony, Lust and other strong desires
  • Arrogance & a sense of entitlement
  • Uncritical or self-serving acceptance of the idea that 

ends justify means

It can be difficult sometimes to tell whether something wrong is done because of insufficiency or expediency, but here's an example to illustrate the difference.

        Suppose you are in battle and in grave imminent danger. You run away, deserting your unit.

This is a vice of insufficiency if you were so afraid that you literally could not help running away. What you did was cowardly.

This is a vice of expediency if you could have stayed but chose not to because you wanted to be safe, and being safe was more important to you than your loyalty to your buddies. What you did looked cowardly but in fact was selfish.

III Malevolence
Envy
Anger
Cruelty & love of violence
Malice & spite
Jealousy
Hatred & intolerance
Vengefulness

 

Three Kinds of  prima facie Virtues:

I. Sufficiency is the adequate development of the cognitive, emotional or volitional capacities required for acceptable moral conduct

Volitional Sufficiency

  • Will power to resist temptations and to do what is right despite contrary inclinations

Emotional/Psychological Sufficiency

  • compassion & empathy
  • honesty
  • fairness
  • courage
  • independence and autonomy
  • healthy sense of self: proper humility

and other virtues

Cognitive sufficiency:

the possession of

  • awareness when something wrong is being done
  • Insight and other critical abilities
  • Intellectual honesty:

§ No rationalization

§ No adherence to clearly-false views: bigotry e.g.

§ Skepticism without  corrosive cynicism about morality

§ No using euphemisms and evasions

§ Being intellectually flexible enough to abandon a belief in the face of contrary evidence

  • Being autonomous: Maintaining  one’s ability to think for oneself in the face of authorities or others who may disagree with you

§ Having Self-honesty and self-knowledge

 

II. Integrity is acting in accordance with one's moral beliefs without regard for the costs to oneself. It's an unwillingness to pursue one’s ends if the costs to others get too high or if doing so violates one's moral beliefs.

Integrity will require

  •  insufficient greed, gluttony, excessive lust or other strong desires  that will lead one to selfishly sacrifice one's principles, i.e. one must have will power.
  • no arrogance or tendency to believe that one is entitled to whatever one wants: humility.
  • critical and cautious acceptance of the idea that ends justify means
  • empathy that prevents one from using people as mere means to one's ends
  • adherence to moral beliefs that prevent one from doing wrong things in pursuit of one's ends
  • courage to act on one's beliefs in the face of resistance, ridicule, or danger.

 

III Benevolence is a disposition to act for the benefit of others.
  • Inner Peacefulness and Contentment (lack of envy or greed)
  • Gentleness: allergic to cruelty, sadism, or violence
  • Charity: Good will toward others
  • Tolerance:not hating people because they are different
  • Compassion
  • Respect for others
  • Turning the other cheek instead of vengeance
  Further Reading: Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Section I, chapter 5