Summary
Highlights
The video introduces St. Thomas Aquinas's doctrine of moral virtues, positioning them as essential for human flourishing and happiness, following ancient and patristic traditions. Virtues are explained as acquired habits that make individuals good through good actions, including strengths like magnanimity, liberality, sobriety, and friendliness.
Ancient thinkers identified prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance as the four principal moral virtues. Christian writers, starting with St. Ambrose, incorporated these 'cardinal virtues' into their understanding of Christian holiness, seeing them as elevated and enveloped by faith, hope, and charity, rather than eclipsed by them.
St. Thomas Aquinas categorized virtues into intellectual virtues (wisdom, understanding, knowledge) which perfect speculative life, and moral virtues (prudence, justice, fortitude, temperance) which perfect practical or moral life. Aquinas focused more extensively on the moral virtues in his work.
Prudence is presented as the supreme moral virtue, refining every action. It guides the three steps of action: deliberation about means, judging the most fitting means, and commanding oneself to perform the action. Prudence, as a perfection of the practical intellect, ensures actions align with reality, leading to successful achievement of goals.
Justice is an expansive virtue that impacts every action due to humanity's inherent social nature. As individuals are linked to others, all actions have a bearing on the common good. Justice is defined as a firm disposition of the will to render to others their due, preserving their life, integrity, name, and possessions, fostering mutual sharing of the common good.
Fortitude perfects the irascible passions (emotions related to difficulty or danger) by moderating fear. It allows individuals to remain fixed on a difficult or dangerous good, preventing abandonment and prompting confrontation with threats. The brave person endures fear to achieve challenging goals.
Temperance moderates the concupiscible passions (desire for pleasure), ensuring that the pursuit of good is not sidetracked by pleasure. It helps enjoy pleasurable goods according to reason, particularly regarding food, drink, and sex. Specific forms like abstinence, sobriety, and chastity align these desires with right reason, providing an internal stability for prudence and justice.
Fortitude and temperance support prudence and justice by moderating passions, creating a stable internal environment for higher acts of reason and will. These virtues, as habits of intellect, will, and passion, perfect both external actions and internal movements, ultimately rendering not only one's pursuits but also one's very person good according to Aquinas.