Virtue and character

How the books answer

Oldest first. Each stop is our own short summary of what the author argued; follow the link to the rung for the whole lesson.

1. 1 c. 385 BC

   Plato, Meno

   Virtue as a kind of knowledge

   Meno asks Socrates whether virtue can be taught. Socrates leans toward the view that virtue is a kind of wisdom, since no one does wrong knowing it is bad for them. But he also notices that good fathers often fail to teach their sons, and the dialogue ends with the puzzle still open, suggesting that good people may have their goodness as a gift of the gods.

   “Can you tell me, Socrates, whether virtue is acquired by teaching or by practice; or if neither by teaching nor by practice, then whether it comes to man by nature, or in what other way?”

   Go to the rung: Plato: Meno →

2. 2 c. 340–322 BC

   Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics

   Virtue built by practice and habit

   Aristotle answers that character virtues come from practice. We become brave by doing brave things, the way a builder learns by building. Each virtue is a settled habit of choosing the middle path between too much and too little, guided by practical wisdom.

   “And so by doing just acts we become just, and by doing acts of temperance and courage we become temperate and courageous.”

   Go to the rung: Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics →

3. 3 c. AD 100–120

   Plutarch, The Lives: Theseus, Lycurgus, Solon, Themistocles, Pericles, Alexander and the other Greeks

   Plutarch writes lives, not histories, so that readers can see character up close: in small sayings and choices as well as in battles. He believes that seeing a good action told well makes us want to do likewise. His paired lives of Greeks and Romans are meant as mirrors for the reader.

   “But virtue, by the bare statement of its actions, can so affect men’s minds as to create at once both admiration of the things done and desire to imitate the doers of them.”

   Go to the rung: Plutarch: Lives of the Greeks →

4. 4 c. AD 397–400

   Augustine of Hippo, The Confessions

   Goodness as a gift of God's grace

   Augustine tells how he knew what was good for years and still could not make himself do it. His will was divided against itself. He came to believe that only God's grace could heal the will, and that a person cannot become good by effort alone.

   Go to the rung: Augustine: Confessions →

5. 5 1265–1274

   Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, later parts (as selected in volume 18)

   Habit and grace together

   Aquinas joins Aristotle and Augustine. The moral virtues, such as courage and self-control, can be gained by practice, as Aristotle taught. But faith, hope and charity, which direct a person to God, are in his view given by God, and charity is the form that gives all the other virtues their full worth.

   “It is therefore evident that hope is a virtue, since it causes a human act to be good and to attain its due rule.”

   Go to the rung: Aquinas: Faith, Hope and Love →

6. 6 written 1513; published 1532

   Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince

   Machiavelli uses the word virtù for a ruler's boldness, skill and readiness to act, which is not the same as moral goodness. He advises that a prince who wants to keep power must learn to be able not to be good when needed. Readers have argued for centuries over whether he was describing politics as it is or recommending it.

   Go to the rung: Machiavelli: The Prince →

7. 7 1785–1797

   Immanuel Kant, Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals, The Critique of Practical Reason, and the writings on ethics and right

   Kant says the one thing good without any qualification is a good will. Talents, courage and even happiness can be used badly. What gives an act its moral worth, in his view, is that it is done because it is right, not because it is pleasant or useful.

   “Nothing can possibly be conceived in the world, or even out of it, which can be called good without qualification, except a Good Will.”

   Go to the rung: Kant: The Moral Philosophy →

8. 8 1815

   Jane Austen, Emma

   Virtue built by practice and habit

   Jane Austen's Emma is clever and kind but sure of her own judgment, and she meddles in her friends' lives. Her character grows through mistakes and through a friend willing to tell her the truth. Austen shows virtue being learned in ordinary life, in visits, conversations and apologies.

   “Knightley, in fact, was one of the few people who could see faults in Emma Woodhouse, and the only one who ever told her of them ...”

   Go to the rung: Jane Austen: Emma →

9. 9 1890

   William James, The Principles of Psychology

   Virtue built by practice and habit

   William James brings Aristotle's point into the age of science. Habits, he explains, are paths worn into the nervous system by repetition. So we should make good actions automatic early, start new habits strongly, and never allow an exception until the habit is firm.

   “The great thing, then, in all education, is to make our nervous system our ally instead of our enemy.”

   Go to the rung: William James: The Principles of Psychology →