Editing Virtue (section)

==Modern philosophers' views==
===René Descartes===
For the [[Rationalism|Rationalist]] philosopher [[René Descartes]], virtue consists in the correct reasoning that should guide our actions. Men should seek the [[summum bonum|sovereign good]] that Descartes, following [[Zeno of Citium|Zeno]], identifies with virtue, as this produces a {{clarify|text=solid|date=July 2023}} blessedness or pleasure. For [[Epicurus]] the sovereign good was pleasure, and Descartes says that in fact this is not in contradiction with Zeno's teaching, because virtue produces a spiritual pleasure, that is better than bodily pleasure. Regarding [[Aristotle]]'s opinion that happiness depends on the goods of fortune, Descartes does not deny that these goods contribute to happiness, but remarks that they are in great proportion outside one's own control, whereas one's mind is under one's complete control.<ref name="Blom">{{cite book|last=Blom|first=John J.|title=Descartes. His moral philosophy and psychology|publisher=New York University Press|year=1978|isbn=0-8147-0999-0|url=https://archive.org/details/descarteshismora0000desc_l9t8|url-access=registration}}</ref>

===Immanuel Kant===
{{unreferenced section|date=September 2020}}
[[Immanuel Kant]], in his ''[[Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and Sublime]]'', says true virtue is different from what commonly is believed about it. In Kant's view, to be goodhearted, benevolent and sympathetic is not true virtue. What makes a person truly virtuous is to behave in accordance with moral principles.

Kant presents an example: suppose that you come across a needy person in the street; if your [[sympathy]] leads you to help that person, your response does not illustrate your virtue. {{clarify|text=In this example, since you do not afford helping all needy ones, you have behaved unjustly, and it is out of the domain of principles and true virtue.|date=July 2023}} Kant applies the approach of [[four temperaments]] to distinguish truly virtuous people. According to Kant, among all people with diverse temperaments, a person with a [[Depression (mood)|melancholic]] frame of mind is the most virtuous, whose thoughts, words, and deeds are principled.

=== Friedrich Nietzsche ===
[[Friedrich Nietzsche]]'s view of virtue is based on the idea of an order of rank among people.{{citation needed|date=January 2025}} For Nietzsche, the virtues of the strong are seen as vices by the weak and slavish, thus Nietzsche's virtue ethics is based on his distinction between [[master and slave morality|master morality and slave morality]]. Nietzsche promotes the virtues of those he calls "higher men", people like Goethe and Beethoven. The virtues he praises in them are their creative powers ("the men of great creativity, the really great men according to my understanding"<ref name=WP>{{cite book|last=Nietzsche|first=Friedrich|title=The Will to Power|orig-year=1901|year=1968|translator-first1=W.|translator-last1=Kaufmann|translator-first2=R.J.|translator-last2=Hollingdale|location=New York|publisher=Vintage}}</ref>{{rp|957}}).
According to Nietzsche these higher types are solitary, pursue a "unifying project", revere themselves and are healthy and life-affirming.<ref name="Leiter">{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/nietzsche-moral-political/#NietPosiEthiVisi |last= Leiter |first=Brian |title=Nietzsche's Moral and Political Philosophy |encyclopedia= The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy|edition=Spring 2013 |editor-first=Edward N.|editor-last= Zalta|year= 2020 }}</ref> Because mixing with the herd makes one base, the higher type "strives instinctively for a citadel and a secrecy where he is saved from the crowd, the many, the great majority…".<ref name=BGE>{{cite book|translator-first=W.|translator-last=Kaufmann|location=New York|publisher=Vintage|year=1966|orig-year=1886|last=Nietzsche|first=Friedrich|title=Beyond Good and Evil|page=26}}</ref> The "Higher type" also "instinctively seeks heavy responsibilities"{{r|WP|page=944}} in the form of an "organizing idea" for their life, which drives them to artistic and creative work and gives them psychological health and strength.<ref name="Leiter"/> The fact that the higher types are "healthy" for Nietzsche does not refer to physical health as much as a psychological resilience and fortitude. Finally, someone of the "Higher type" affirms life because he is willing to accept the [[eternal return]] of his life and affirm this forever and unconditionally.

In the last section of ''[[Beyond Good and Evil]]'', Nietzsche outlines his thoughts on the noble virtues and places [[solitude]] as one of the highest virtues:

<blockquote>And to keep control over your four virtues: courage, insight, sympathy, solitude. Because solitude is a virtue for us, since it is a sublime inclination and impulse to cleanliness which shows that contact between people ("society") inevitably makes things unclean. Somewhere, sometime, every community makes people – "base."{{r|BGE|at=§284}}</blockquote>

Nietzsche also sees truthfulness as a virtue:

<blockquote>Genuine honesty, assuming that this is our virtue and we cannot get rid of it, we free spirits – well then, we will want to work on it with all the love and malice at our disposal and not get tired of 'perfecting' ourselves in our virtue, the only one we have left: may its glory come to rest like a gilded, blue evening glow of mockery over this aging culture and its dull and dismal seriousness!{{r|BGE|at=§227}}</blockquote>

=== Benjamin Franklin ===
[[File:Seal of Virginia.svg|thumb|upright|Virtue, spear in hand, with her foot on the prostrate form of [[Tyranny]] on the [[Sic Semper Tyrannis|Great Seal of Virginia]]]]
These are the virtues that [[Benjamin Franklin]] used to develop what he called "moral perfection".<ref>{{cite book|title-link=The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin|chapter-url=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/benjamin-franklin/the-autobiography-of-benjamin-franklin/text/chapter-9|chapter=Plan for Attaining Moral Perfection|title=The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin|last=Franklin|first=Benjamin|author-link=Benjamin Franklin|year=1791}}</ref> He had a checklist in a notebook to measure each day how he lived up to his virtues.

They became known through [[The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin|Benjamin Franklin's autobiography]].

<blockquote>
# [[Temperance (virtue)|Temperance]]: Eat not to Dullness. Drink not to Elevation.
# Silence: Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself. Avoid trifling Conversation.
# [[Order (virtue)|Order]]: Let all your Things have their Places. Let each Part of your Business have its Time.
# [[Determination|Resolution]]: Resolve to perform what you ought. Perform without fail what you resolve.
# [[Frugality]]: Make no Expense but to do good to others or yourself; i.e. Waste nothing.
# [[Diligence|Industry]]: Lose no Time. Be always employed in something useful. Cut off all unnecessary Actions.
# [[Sincerity]]: Use no hurtful Deceit. Think innocently and justly; and, if you speak, speak accordingly.
# [[Justice (virtue)|Justice]]: Wrong none, by doing Injuries or omitting the Benefits that are your Duty.
# [[Moderation]]: Avoid Extremes. Forbear resenting Injuries so much as you think they deserve.
# [[Cleanliness]]: Tolerate no Uncleanness in Body, Clothes or Habitation.
# [[Tranquillity|Tranquility]]: Be not disturbed at Trifles, or at Accidents common or unavoidable.
# [[Chastity]]: Rarely use [[wikt:venery#Etymology 2|Venery]] but for Health or Offspring; Never to Dullness, Weakness, or the Injury of your own or another's Peace or Reputation.
# [[Humility]]: Imitate Jesus and Socrates.
</blockquote>